Why Trust You
by silfursvik
Summary: Sarah and Toby fight, words fly, and Toby wishes her away to the Goblin King, unaware he would really show up to take her. Toby runs the Labyrinth to retrieve her, while Jareth has some fun with Sarah at the castle. Irony sets the mood 4 perfect revenge.
1. Hallowed Be My Name

**This story is currently rated M to be safe. i don't know exactly where i'm going with this right now... Knowing myself, probably in the M directiong. Though I'll keep Toby out of that little bit. This isn't going to be a full story, long i mean. Expect no more than...I'd say 10 chapters.**

**ENJOY!**

Sarah groaned in frustration and let her head fall back against the bedroom door's frame. "Oh come _on_, Toby. I told you specifically not to touch my things. It was the _only thing_ I told you! I told you that you could play with or even have anything else in my room, but not _this_! Now just look at this! It's ruined, Toby. What am I supposed to _do_?"

She took a fleeting and painful look down at the sketch pad in her hand. There were hardly any pictures she could salvage. Most of her pencil drawings were colored over with near-scribbles of colored marker and paints and crayons. Imagine her confusion and fury when she sat down to finish the sketches with faint coloring of colored pencils and found them in that state.

The seven year old boy in front of her, thick curls of golden hair almost completely covering his doe-like blue eyes, looked from the sketch pad to Sarah. "I already _said _I was sorry," he said.

"I heard you say that," Sarah nearly snapped back. "But sorry doesn't fix this mess, Toby. What were you thinking?"

"I just wanted to help you. You promised you'd play with me after coloring your pictures. I thought you'd be happy if I colored them for you."

She sighed, caught between her incredible frustration for her young half-brother and her understanding of his good-intended motivations. The anger was winning. "Well I'm certainly not happy, okay? I'm quite the opposite. This is just _horrible_! Everything's ruined."

"But you can re-do them," Toby offered. "You're a great drawer."

"I can't re-do it, that's just it! These drawings are due tomorrow. I'm going to fail art without them! There's nearly four weeks of work in this pad. There's no way I can do all this in one night, not even if I stay up all night long!"

Toby pouted, but then slightly brightened at an idea. "What if I help you, Sarah? This time you can show me what to do, and I promise I'll color inside the lines, and—"

"I think you've help enough," she all but snarled. "I don't want your help with anything."

He scowled. "Fine! I was only trying to help."

She clenched her hand into fists. "And now everything's ruined. I can't believe you. You're the worst."

Her words snapped back at her like a rubber band. She had said the words without meaning to, anger making them carelessly fly out of her mouth. Her stance relaxed. She regretted the words immediately, even before seeing Toby's expression. She sighed, softly now.

"Toby, I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean that."

"You're the worst sister," Toby rebuked sharply. "And if you don't want my help, then I don't want yours!"

Sarah tried to approach him. "Toby, I really didn't—"

But the red-faced child didn't want to hear it. He ran over to his big sister and shoved against her legs, trying to force her out of his room so he could slam the door in her face. "Get out of my room," he huffed while she didn't move. "I don't wanna see you!"

"Then close your eyes, 'cause I'm not leaving until you settle down and let me properly apologize."

Toby whined in aggravation, stopped pushing, and mimicked Sarah's defiant stance by folding his arms across his chest. "Then I wish the Goblin King would come and take you away! Right _now_!"

Sarah visibly paled. She couldn't have just heard Toby say that…. But he did say that. He said his _right words _all right. He said the same exact thing she had once said to him. After her journey through the Labyrinth she had spoiled Toby with stories of her wild adventures, which was how he knew of the Labyrinth's infamous king and former adversary. Of course, Toby didn't know that it was all true. Only Sarah knew the power of the words he had just spoken.

And the room around her seemed to tilt and stretch and _whirl_. Immediately her mouth went dry, and she felt as if she could have been dripping in sweat. Her heart beat doubled its pace.

"Toby," she gasped, "what have you done?"

He eyed her warily. "What are you talking about, Sarah?" he demanded, still fuming. "Why do you look like that? It's just a stupid story, remember?"

Sarah stumbled back, shaking her head absently, her words strangled in her throat. Toby darted forward and shut the door as forcibly as he could. Sarah cringed at the loud bang it made. It came in dangerous closeness with her face, but she wouldn't have cared if it hit her and broke her nose.

Fighting to stay calm, to not panic, to not hyperventilate or faint of anything of the sort, she made her way quickly to her room. She shut and locked the door, and made sure to do the same with the windows. She stood in the middle of her room, trying to focus on her breathing, but she couldn't suppress the fear shooting through her veins and churning in her stomach.

She tried to convince herself that the Goblin King not, nor were his goblins, coming to get her. That was ridiculous. After all, it was just a few words of anger. It was a silly argument between the two of them. During arguments, you say things you don't mean. Toby didn't really mean what he said….

"_But I didn't mean it!"_

_"Oh, you didn't?"_

Sarah once tried to tell the Goblin King she didn't mean what she said, no matter how right her were. He still took Toby.

She knew the inevitable. She was screwed. In honor of His Majesty, she was _royally _screwed.

"Well, well, well," a voice drawled from behind here, "what have we here?"

Sarah's breath caught.

She knew that voice.

She knew that voice because it sounded exactly like she remembered it did.

How could anyone _forget _a voice like that?

His voice was accented, deep, and smooth as silk. He purred his words and commanded at the same time, his tone so filled with hidden amusement, dark promises, arrogance and sneering. It was a cruel voice, a voice for both demanding obedience and whispering endearments.

This also happened to be a voice that scared the shit out of her. At the first sound of it, all of her childhood rushed back to her. Every moment spent in the Labyrinth shot through her mind like an arrow from a bow. Memories of hearing his voice overwhelmed her to the point of her legs feeling so weakened that she wasn't sure if she would fall. She realized that, in the Labyrinth, every time she heard his voice, bad things happened.

And, like all the times before, she didn't even get to scream.

* * *

><p>Toby was laying on across his bed on his stomach, coloring on a paper with crayons. When he kicked Sarah out of his room, he instantly began to re-think his actions. He didn't mean to make Sarah so mad, and she looked so upset when she left his room. He realized that maybe it was wrong to wish her away to the Goblin King. If his parents were home, he knew they'd be surely scolding him. He knew they'd make her apologize to Sarah, so he decided that he would apologize on his own and then maybe Sarah wouldn't be angry anymore and she would play with him.<p>

Toby was drawing a picture of him and Sarah. He intended to give it to her as an apology. The abstractly colored picture featured stick-figure Sarah in a dress and wearing a crown, smiling and holding hands with the smiling stick-figure Toby, with rainbow hearts around the two of them. Next to them, another black stick-figure with a scribble of tall, pointy hair on his head laid across the bottom of the page with X's over his eyes, blood around him, and a dagger in his chest: this was the evil Goblin King that his sister had valiantly slain so her and Toby could live happily ever after.

He just added the finishing touches—a yellow sun in the corner and blue stars in the sky—when his paper blew from the bed. His window was open, and anything loose in the room was being tossed around in a sudden wild wind. Toby jumped off his bed, but he didn't know what to do. He screamed for Sarah then. She didn't come, but the wind died down as quickly as it appeared.

Toby turned to flee the room and seek refuge in Sarah's room, but he stopped and jumped back when he found a man standing behind him.

This man was really tall; Toby's head had to be bent all the way back to see him. Toby marveled at the likeness of the two of them; they both had blonde hair and blue eyes. Only this man had really long hair, with a really weird style. Actually, the man looked weird in general. Toby was scared because there was a stranger in his room, and he knew his parents would have been highly against that. Then he saw that the man was wearing a cape that touched the floor, and he realized the man must have been a superhero. Then he knew the man couldn't have been a superhero because he never saw a superhero wear all black before. He realized the man looked more like the villain would.

"Hello, young Toby," the man greeted, and he sounded so weird that Toby giggled. "My, look how you've grown up."

Toby didn't say anything, only took a few steps back so he didn't have to look up as much and kept staring. Toby saw that the man also had freaky eyebrows.

"Well?" the man asked, smiling. "Don't you have anything to say?"

Toby shook his head.

"Why not, young lad? You can talk, can't you?"

Toby nodded. "I can talk. I'm just not supposed to talk to strangers." And then he gasped and clapped both hands over his mouth, realizing he just spoke to the stranger.

The man smiled again. "Oh, Toby, but I'm no stranger to you. You know very well who I am."

Toby looked hard at the man, but he couldn't figure it out. "Sorry, I don't know you. Who are you?"

"I?" He spread out his arms and bowed low, his face closer to Toby's, just enough for Toby to see how much more creepy his grin was up close. "I am the Goblin King. You may call me Jareth."

Toby's jaw dropped and his eyes opened wide. "You're _real_?"

"Why, last time I checked, I was. Very much so. Yes."

"So Sarah was telling me the truth?"

Jareth narrowed his eyes slightly, still smiling but with lips pressed together. "Yes, indeed she was."

Toby's face lit with excitement like it was Christmas morning. He started bouncing up and down. "I have to go tell Sarah! She'll be so happy!"

As he turned to run off, Jareth's voice stopped him.

"Toby, Sarah is not here right now," he said.

Toby turned back in confusion. "She's not? Did she go to the store? Mom said she was supposed to stay here and watch me."

Jareth slowly shook his head. "She's not at the store, Toby. She's not in this world anymore. I've taken her away."

"To where?" Toby asked, feeling more uncomfortable.

"To my castle. In my Labyrinth."

Toby relaxed, visibly relieved. "Oh, OK. So, when is she coming back?"

"Never."

A look of horror came over Toby. "Never? She's never coming back? But why not? Does she not want to live here anymore?"

"Toby, you don't understand," Jareth said, crouching in front of the child. "You wished Sarah away. You said, 'I wish the Goblin King would come and take you away.' So, I took her away. She will stay with me forever because you wished for her to be. She can't come back because she's with me now."

Toby's breathing became shallow. "But…but…I want her to come back!" His voice cracked. "I didn't mean it!"

"Oh, you didn't?"

Toby shook his head. "No, I didn't. I want her back! Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!" He started shouting for her, hoping he would hear her and come to her call like she always did.

Jareth put a hand over Toby's mouth, lips twisted. "Stop screaming, Toby. That is _very_ irritating."

"But I want Sarah to come back," he said, his voice muffled under Jareth's glove. "Bring her back! Let her go!" Abruptly filled with rage, Toby screamed and tried to punch and kick the King with all the fury his little body could muster, demanding he give Sarah back. He didn't touch Jareth with a single hit. Jareth only blinked and grabbed Toby's wrists with a gentle but restraining grasp.

"Alright, Toby," he said. "If you want Sarah back that badly, I'll make you a deal."

Toby relaxed at once, and waited.

"Now, come here, Toby. Come here, and look." Jareth put a hand on Toby's back and guided him to the far wall of his room, where the wall had disappeared and the vision of a dusty red, brick-made labyrinth could be seen. There was a gentle wind, the sun rising, and a fresh smell in the air. Jareth pointed. "That, my dear Toby, is the Castle Beyond the Goblin City. That is where Sarah is right now. Do you want to know how you can free her, how you get her back?"

Toby nodded.

"To get Sarah back you must travel through my Labyrinth and reach the Castle Beyond the Goblin City. Just think of it as a game, Toby. You play against me and my Labyrinth and win by reaching Sarah. Like a quest a brave young knight would make. If you reach the Castle and reach Sarah, you both get to go home."

Toby liked the idea of being Sarah's brave knight. "That's all I have to do?"

Jareth patted Toby's head, and Toby jerked away. "Don't underestimate the Labyrinth, dear boy. It's much more than it seems. It could be dangerous at times, and sometimes it can be very scary. You would have to be very brave to want to travel through it."

Toby didn't want to seem like he was a scared little kid, and he proudly raised his chin. "I'm brave enough. Nothing scares me."

Jareth laughed. And although Toby wouldn't admit it out loud, that laugh scared him.

"Very well then." Jareth looked at his black gloves, and toyed with them. He paused, looking back down at Toby. "Are you _sure _you're ready for the Labyrinth, Toby?"

"Yes," Toby said. But then he said, "Oh—wait a second!" And he ran back into his room and snatched up his drawing from the floor, running back over to Jareth with it clutched to his chest. "Picture," he explained to Jareth. "It was for Sarah. When I find her, I'm gonna give it to her."

Jareth nodded. "Alright, Toby. You have thirteen hours to solve the Labyrinth and reach Sarah, or else Sarah will stay with me _forever._"

Although Toby was frightened, he nodded to show that he understood. The Goblin King grinned before laughing again, only to have the sound faded out as he did. Toby folded up the paper he held and put it into his jean's pocket for safe keeping. Standing on top of a hill, he could overlook the Labyrinth very good. Then he looked down at his feet, and he frowned because he wasn't moving. He shrugged lightly.

"Well," he said, starting to trump down the hill, "come on, feet. Let's save Sarah."

**The Goblin King: Well? Review!**

**What did you guys think of the first chapter? I'd really like to know. Please review, whatever you think about it. Should I continue?**


	2. Welcome To My Nightmare

**I couldnt't help myself!  
>I needed to get this chapter out like NOW! And i don't know why.<br>i literally haven't eaten anything all day long. (9 hours now)**

Sarah found herself in a very familiar room. She knew this room from her last visit to the Labyrinth, and although she hadn't spent much time in the castle she could remember going through this room. Of course, it was very empty then. There was a door to her left, and she didn't know where that led. But the passage to the right, she knew that led to the Escher room.

The room was filled with dozens of creatures, all of different sizes but of the same likeness, yet they were all different in unique ways. Horrible looking creatures, with discolored skin, pointed ears, and big noses. Some hard sharp teeth, some had no teeth, some were hairier than others.

Goblins.

And it was chaos. Two goblins sat on the edge of the pit and relentlessly jabbed each other with sticks until one fell over. A goblin was making a snow angel on the straw-covered floor. A group of the creatures sat in a circle as one of them experimentally licked a pixie—much to the protesting of the pixie. A goblin was fighting over the rights to his hat with a hungry goat, and some of them stood around and cheered for either the goat or the goblin. One had a big net and was chasing a chicken. Most of them were drinking, some were dancing and singing under their breaths with snickering.

Sarah's gaze swept the hectic scene before stopping on the king's throne. His empty throne. She sighed.

She felt a tug on the leg of her jeans and looked down. A small, ashen-skinned goblin with a sock pulled over his head as a hat was staring up at her, holding out a dirty, half-eaten peach.

"Gift," he said.

Sarah kindly accepted it, fighting a grimace at its gritty and suspiciously wet feel in her hand. "Uh…thanks."

The goblin beamed before happily skipping off. When no one was looking, she discreetly threw it behind her back and wiped her hands on her thighs.

"Uh. Um." God, this was just too freaky for her. "Do any of you guys know where the King is this morning?" she asked.

"King says, 'busy,'" grunted the goblin trying to tug his hat from the goat's mouth.

The others nodded in agreement.

"King left before you came," another said.

"Left _fast_," said another.

"Out the window."

"Yeah. Out the window. Turned himself into a bird."

"Help me!" screeched the pixie still being taste-tested by the creatures.

Sarah held up her hands in a motion meaning for them to stop. She walked over to the tower window, rested her hands against the cold stone sill, and leaned out to look. There was no king to be seen, but the drop to the ground was considerably high.

"He _jumped_?" she asked doubtfully, raising an eyebrow as she looked back at the creatures.

They nodded.

The goblin finally got his hat from the goat.

"Yay, Skip!" the others cheered.

Skip glared at the bored-looking goat and smacked its head before indignantly pulling his hat back on his head.

Sarah raised herself up on her toes as she continued to look out the window. The Goblin City was quiet. The Labyrinth was just a faint outline all the way in the distance, hiding behind the forest. It was so surreal to be back, she thought. It scared her and filled her with more wonder. Of course there was reason to be scared, that was obvious. But now, she was twenty-one and looking at the Labyrinth with a different view, with eyes not solely focused on getting her brother back. It really was magical, every bit of it, and she was in awe.

Another shriek sounded in the room. Sarah turned and the others looked at a shifty-looking goblin standing alone with his hands behind his back. Sarah narrowed her eyes as she approached the goblin, watching him grow with nervousness. She crouched in front of him and held her hand out.

"Spit her out," she said sternly.

Bashfully, the goblin opened his mouth and unfurled a tongue at least a foot long. A very agitated, very wet pixie sat on his tongue with a look of shear disgust. The other creatures snickered.

Sarah gingerly took the pixie in her hand and set it down on the window sill, safely out of the creatures' reach. "Look, guys, pixies are not for eating. Let's not torture them, 'kay?"

"Okay, Lady," the creatures chorused.

"But they taste like sparkles," a fat and disappointed goblin with a blue, round nose said. "I like sparkles."

"Yeah, well, just remember not everything that sparkles is for eating," Sarah said.

"Oooooohhh," they said, understanding.

"That clears up a lot," one said.

Sarah sighed and turned back to the window, resting her arms down on the sill and staring at the half-blue, half-blackened sky. "Just how 'busy' is our King?" she wondered.

"He said…uh…he said…." Skip pursed his lips in thought. "I don't remember what he said. Bat, do you remember what King said?"

Bat, the sock-headed goblin that earlier gifted Christina with a chewed-up peach, shrugged. "King used big words."

"Right," the blue-nosed goblin agreed. "King always uses big words."

Sarah looked curiously at them.

"King uses words like 'detrimental' and 'loathsome'," Bat said.

"And 'intoxication' and 'eternal torment'," Skip said.

The goblin with the long net stepped up. "He was playing a game with us where he was chasing us around with my net, yelling at us. He didn't catch us so he got more angry and gave up. If he didn't get so angry I would've showed him how to use it…."

He then demonstrated the proper net-using technique by bringing it down over Bat's head and scooping him up. Bat roared in rage and quickly freed himself from the tangled net and bit onto the stick. The other screamed and waved the net frantically, trying to unlatch Bat. With a hard swing, Bat flew off, and luckily landed into Sarah's arms.

"Thank you, Lady," Bat said, smiling lovingly up at Sarah.

"You're welcome, Bat," she said, setting him down. "Be careful, okay?"

"Coulda been worse," said Skip. "He coulda went out the window."

"Yeah, yeah," the net-wielding goblin agreed enthusiastically. "King loves throwing us out the window. Feels like flying." Then he frowned. "Until you hit the ground."

Sarah's mouth fell open in horror. "Oh my God. He _throws _you out the _window_? _This_ window? We're on the second floor tower!"

"Doesn't always," Skip said. "Sometimes he mixes it up to make us happy and he _kicks _us out the window. Murr was kicked out yesterday."

The net goblin nodded. "Hurt. But in a good way." He beamed, eyes glazing over. "Like flying."

Sarah stared at him in disbelief. "But the ground…."

"Ground not fun," he said. "That's why _always_ try to land on someone else."

"Did you land on someone else?" she asked.

He looked down in sorrow. "No."

"How did you even _live_?" she exclaimed.

"King says, 'regretfully durable,'" Skip told her.

Sarah only nodded, still in shock of that. "Oh, ok."

Shaking her head she turned back to the window sill, and she screamed.

The was the Goblin King, sitting on the sill with one leg stretched out across it and the other bent with his arm loosely resting on it. He was all black from the boots to the shirt open at his chest, with a dark blue cloak falling to the floor. He leaned his head back against the stone wall, examining her with thin lips curled on one side into a derisive smirk that matched the twinkle in his cobalt blue eyes.

Just like looking at the Labyrinth through older, wiser eyes, she felt like that was the first time she was looking at the Goblin King. She had forgotten how overwhelming his presence was, or maybe it just never registered the first time. Now, he didn't just seem like something to fear. She hadn't remembered her old foe as a man so intimidating and sultry and commanding of obedience and attention just by being. She hadn't remembered body language to relaxed yet coiled and ready to pounce for a kill when the moment came. She didn't remember the way his ashen blonde hair fell in wisps down his shoulders and around his thin, sharp face in a way that was so wild and regal, and how everything he needed to demand could have just been seen in his eyes—and who could defy those eyes?—and all of his other features which she hadn't remembered as being so beautiful.

"Well," he said, tone full of amusement, "I'm so pleased you're happy to see me."

And she was pleased that she could hold down her bearings. She glared at him. in fact, for a brief moment, she even considered shoving him off the ledge.

"Belief me, Goblin King," she said, "I'm far from happy about this."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Why ever not?"

"_Because_," she stressed, "you _kidnapped _me!"

"Such accusations. However, _precious_," he purred, "you were fairly wished away to me. You were there when it happened, remember? Or is it just that you still don't understand how this works?"

"You know Toby didn't mean to wish me away. I told him none of this was real. I never thought he'd try wishing anyone away, much less me! But you knew he didn't want this. And neither do I for that matter, so send me home."

He wasn't fazed at all by her harsh tone. He only faintly smiled and shook his head. "The latter, I see. That's not how it works, princess."

Sarah cringed. "You better stop with the names right now, before I shove your glittery ass off that ledge. Now tell me, exactly _how _is this going to work."

He sighed and gave her a bland look. "I do so hate repeating myself."

Sarah blinked, set back. _"You have thirteen hours in which to solve the Labyrinth before your baby brother becomes one of us forever." _The word hit her like bricks.

"What have you done with Toby?" she demanded, fearfully quiet.

"I?" He stood up in one fluid motion, with incomparable grace in his movements, and leaned back against the wall. "Why, Sarah, I haven't done a thing with him."

She didn't believe him for a second. The gleam in his eye was far too secretive and sadistic to believe anything he said. Not that she would believe him either if she couldn't catch that in his expression or tone of voice. Everything about him was entirely distrustful. _That _she remembered.

"Where is he right now?" she tried again.

He inclined his head to the window briefly. "He's here, running the Labyrinth."

Sarah gasped in horror.

"He actually had no problem to know I had taken you. His problem was that you would never be returning. I didn't bother offering him his dreams—not that I think he would have listened anyway—that's a ploy more for the adults. For a child, all I would need to do was offer the shiny crystal. I didn't do that either. He was quite persistent, wanted you back very badly. I decided I would give him the benefit of the doubt and allow him to run the Labyrinth for your return."

Sarah stared at him in terror and incredulity. "You _bastard_! How could you let him run the Labyrinth? Don't you realize what that could do to him? He's only seven! He could get hurt! Or worse!" She felt dizzy. "Oh God." She had to sit on the window sill so she wouldn't fall.

"I'm aware of his age, Sarah," he said, sounding offended. "I wouldn't let anything _serious _happen to him. But his choice was his own."

"His _choice_?" Sarah repeated, her voice raising a few octaves. "You _idiot_, he's seven! He doesn't know what kind of choices he's making. He wished me away to _you_."

He chuckled darkly and was suddenly in front of her, bracing his hands against the stones on either side of her and leaning down so their faces were level and closer together. He was giving her a sultry smile. "And for that," he said, "I am eternally in your brother's debt."

Then Sarah really realized her situation. Trapped on that ledge by the Goblin King made her realize that even if she slipped away from him for personal space, she was still trapped by him. She was trapped in his world.

She bit her lip thoughtfully before asking, "If Toby doesn't make it to me, do I become a…a goblin?"

To her surprise, he laughed. His breath blowing into her face was intoxicating. She realized he had a strange but alluring smell to him; spicy, almost cinnamon, something deeply floral—and she imagined a dying black rose—and like…magic. _And you know something wrong_, she thought, _when you're smelling people._

"That's unthinkable, precious thing," he said. "What an awful waste, turning you into a goblin."

Sarah glanced past him, but not one of the goblins recognized the insult their King just threw their way.

"But?" Sarah prompted, because she didn't miss the implied _but _at the end of the Goblin King's words.

He raised on hand and allowed the back of his leather-clad fingers to brush across her cheek and down her jawline. A strange heat grew in her stomach, a surge of pleasure shooting through her. At the same time, it made her angry. She didn't want him touching her, and certainly not if it made her feel that way. She was in a serious situation and didn't want the manipulative Goblin King distracting her, she knew how dangerous that could be. So her hands clenched into fists and she fought not to pull away from his touch, or not to break her eyes from his. Anything could be shown as a sign of weakness.

And she thought the Goblin King, for just a moment, looked impressed.

"_But_, dear Sarah, should your brother fail, you shall stay with me forever."

She tried to keep anything from showing through her hard mask. She nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. But…Toby…he'll be allowed to go home no matter what? Right?"

He looked a little reluctant, but he said, "Yes. Toby gets to go home."

Sarah desperately wanted to believe it would be that easy, so she let out a breath of relief. "Okay." After all, that's all that mattered. She did not, in any respect, want to stay in the Labyrinth with the Goblin King for the rest of her life. She didn't want to dwell on it because she knew she would start crying. And she'd be damned if she was going to cry in front of the Goblin King. But if Toby got to go home unharmed, able to continue to live his life, it would make staying in the Labyrinth easier for her.

She looked back at the King, not realizing she had downcast her gaze. He was still in her face, looking at her observantly. She raised an eyebrow.

"Do you not know what a 'personal bubble' is?"

He quirked a knowing smile and slipped away from her, letting her breathe a little more freely. Out of nowhere, he conjured up a crystal. Sarah gripped the edge of the stones and eyed him warily.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked.

He only began juggling the crystal, flamboyantly rolling it over one hand and then to the other. He didn't even keep his eyes on the crystal, he steadily watched her. "Nothing," he said innocently.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Oh sure. Nothing, nothing tra la la, right? Why don't I believe that? Oh yeah, because nothing _good ever_ happened when those things appeared."

He gave her a dubious look. "Are you sure about that?"

"Let's recap then, shall we?" Sarah recounted all the times she saw the crystals and what followed, ticking them off on her fingers as her went. "The first time, you threw a snake at me and took my brother. Then you show up to harass me in the Labyrinth's tunnels. Then you set the Cleaners on me. Then you drug me with some pervy, hallucinogen peach. Like I said, nothing good."

"Come now, Sarah, you only pointed out all the villainous acts on purpose," he argued. "What about when I offered you your dreams?" Another crystal appeared, doubling the mesmerism of his juggling. "And if I recall, you very much enjoyed that dream. Remember, Sarah? You dancing in that crystal ballroom, our eyes as well as our bodies locked together, the romance and the _magic_ and the elegance in the air. If you could have, you would have dance yourself to death." Sarah shivered at his words, and yet another crystal formed along his arm. "And what of our last moments, Sarah? What when I _generously _offered you _everything _for a second time?"

Sarah had to lick her lips before she could speak. Although she was quiet, she was livid. "You son of a bitch. I was _fourteen_ years old. _Romance_ in the air? You tried every trick up your sleeve to try to make me lose, didn't you?"

When he looked at her, his face was dangerously wiped clean of all emotion. The only thing that didn't disappear was the impious twinkle in his eyes. He dropped two of the crystals, and Sarah cringed, anticipating a loud shattering. The crystals hit the floor soundlessly and exploded in every direction with white light, fragments of it bouncing out like brilliant sparks before fading into the stones. Sarah let out an amazed breath. He still held one crystal, which spun itself on his pointer finger as he walked over to her.

Sarah tried to slid away, but he sat next to her and snaked an arm around her waist, holding her in place and against him. He rested his chin on her shoulder and his head against her own, and he deeply breathed in the scent of her hair. She was petrified.

"Not _every _trick," he almost growled. "Even _I_—believe it or don't—have some boundaries. You were, after all, only _fourteen_. I had mixed feelings about playing with your innocence, but _now_…."

Sarah shivered as he twirled a lock of her hair around his finger.

"Look," he said, holding the crystal in front of her.

She peered into the crystal, afraid of what she would see. When she made out the vision, she gasped in surprise. "Toby!" She reached out a tentative hand and lightly stroked the side of the smooth crystal. "Oh, Toby."

"Poor boy," the King commented. "Hasn't even gotten _in_to the Labyrinth yet. He _just_ _can't_ seem to find that _door_…."

Sarah looked away, blinking at the tears brimming in her eyes.

"You have to appreciate the irony of the situation, precious," he said. "You once wished Toby away—and I assume he doesn't know that—and now he's wished you away. He did it better than you did, I have to admit. You wished the goblins would take him, and he wished you specifically to me. his wish could be bad or worse for you, depending on how you look at it."

Sarah only shook her head, glancing back at the crystal. Toby was looking very frustrated, trying to climb over the wall instead of finding a door. From personal experience, Sarah knew that most likely the door was _right there. _

"Seeing as how you never expected Toby to say those words," he continued, "I'm sure you never expected us to meet like this, if you ever expected us to meet again at all. You did dream about that, didn't you, precious? You did fantasize of our…_conversing_. You dreamt about _us_, about _me_."

Of course she had, but she wasn't going to admit that out loud. She thought about the Labyrinth every day. She talked to her friends—Hoggle, Ludo, and Didymus—regularly. She never asked any of the about the Goblin King, but she always wondered. They never spoke of him either. Sarah thought every day—every goddamned day—about the Goblin King. The only thing that stopped her fantasies from being very intimate was that she kept his name out of her mind, she wouldn't think it and wouldn't speak it.

When she thought about any sort of reunion with the Goblin King, in real life terms, she expected it would not nearly be as nice as her dreams. Her dreams were beyond pleasant. However, in their final confrontation moments, she remembered the frustration, the anger, and the desperation in his expression and his words. She was sure for all the trouble she cause the Goblin King, he would be furious at her. And she absolutely expected him to be the grudge-holding type.

Gathering her courage, she asked, "You're going to torture me, aren't you? I mean, 'cause you hate me, right? So that makes sense…."

"Hmmm, well…," he mused, "let's see. You only cheated your way through my entire Labyrinth—having all those _friends _helping you along—laughing in my face as you went. You defied me, and made a fool out of me by desiring everything from me. You came here and turned my world upside down, exhausted me with your expectations, and hated me when all I did was everything you asked. You spurned me aside when I offered you your dreams, when I offered you myself you rejected me without a pause, without a thought. You shattered my crystal ballroom with a chair. Everything…fell…_down_. You tore my castle apart, and you left me with ruins to rebuild all by myself without any tools to do so. I must say, it was all incredibly _cruel _of you, Sarah. But why would you ever think that I _hate_ you?"

"I guess that answers that," Sarah muttered. "So, now that I'm here, what do you want with me?"

She felt him shrug. "I haven't yet decided. It's funny, I planned a lot of things when you left, and now I've come up a bit blank. You're lucky I've had many years to at least calm down. Can you imagine I went a little mad when you left?"

God, just the threats he was building up terrified Sarah. When she thought about how she left, she did often feel bad about it. But then she reminded herself of what he did, and she had to save Toby. She'd say it was total fair game, because they both did things to each other. It wasn't fair for him to take away three hours of her time, or distract her with bubble dreams, so all her actions were justified. Anyway, she wasn't going to tell him that she ever regretted what she did to him.

He went on. "I've thought about simply tossing you into an oubliette and letting you rot there, in the dark, with only your screams as company. I've considered tying you to a tree right in the middle of the Bog of Eternal Stench. I've mulled over this idea about putting you into an endless sleep and feeding you nightmare after nightmare. I've thought about making you take your pick of all these. Maybe, I think, I'll just keep you all to myself for personal torture. After all, I'd like to at least be around to see you suffer. It wouldn't make a difference now if we add more irony to this: last time you visited, I was your slave, so you should at least return the favor. Doesn't that sound…_fair_?"

"Yes," Sarah barely choked out, "that sounds _very _fair, Goblin King."

He laughed softly, dauntingly. Sarah again reached for the crystal he held, showing Toby stomping his foot in aggravation, crying. There was no way Sarah could let Toby sit just outside the Labyrinth for thirteen hours, but she didn't want him in the Labyrinth either.

The Goblin King sighed and moved away from Sarah before standing, narrowing his eyes at the crystal as he began walking away. "Perhaps I should make a quick visit to our young friend, just to let him know that he could give up at any time." He smirked cruelly.

"Wait!" Sarah cried, hopping to her feet and stumbling forwards. "Please, can you do something for me?" she asked him.

Curious, he raised an eyebrow, though his expression promised nothing.

"I had help in the Labyrinth," she said. "Toby's only seven, at least give him that advantage. I want him to have a guide, just someone to keep him company."

"Absolutely not," he answered, waving a hand through the air, as if to ward off her words.

"Oh, come on," Sarah nearly groaned. "Why not? You know he's not going to win anyway, don't you?" Those words nearly stuck in her throat. "You know it can't help him that much, just for company. Just someone who'll keep him safe."

For a long moment, he didn't respond. The he sighed. "Fine. As you wish, precious." He thoughtfully put a hand against his cheek as he looked around, eyes scanning all the goblins around. "You," he said, pointing.

The goblin swayed drunkenly, then hiccupped. He questioningly pointed to himself, asking to confirm he was the one being pointed at. A goblin standing next to him shoved him, and he fell face-first onto the floor.

"Hell no," Sarah protested sharply. She looked around at the creatures and said, "I mean, no offense to you guys," she turned back to the Goblin King, "but these creatures would be the first ones to walk right into an oubliette. I want Hoggle to go with Toby."

The King gave her a repulsed look and started to turn away. She quickly darted forward and grabbed his cloak to stop him. He turned back in surprise, meeting her pleading gaze. She didn't care what she had to do, she would get on her knees and beg and cry if she had to.

Instead, all she did was whisper a simple, "Please."

He scowled. "Oh, fine." Glaring at her, he ripped his cloak from her grasp and started stalking off. "I'll go find Hogwart."

Sarah bit her lip to stop her smile.

* * *

><p>Welcome to my nightmare<br>I think you're gonna like it  
>I think you're gonna feel you belong<br>We sweat and laugh and scream here  
>'Cause life is just a dream here<br>You know inside you feel right at home here

-Alice Cooper "Welcome to my Nightmare"

* * *

><p><strong>Review please! let me know what you think of it so far. How am i doing? still with me?<strong>


	3. Time To Kill

Toby slumped against the Labyrinth's outer wall as tears began pouring down his face. He didn't want to give up, but there was nothing he could do. There was absolutely no way to get into the stupid Labyrinth!

"Why ya cryin', Toby?"

Toby gasped and looked up, finding a somewhat familiar dwarf standing in front of him. he quickly wiped his face because he didn't want anyone to see him cry. He stood up and looked over the dwarf warily.

"How to you know my name?"

The dwarf rolled his eyes. "Who doesn't know yer name?" he rebuked. "You and yer sister, all yous cause is nothin' but trouble in the Underground."

Toby's eyes widened. "My sister? Wait, what about my sister? You know my sister?"

"'Course I know yer sister. Sarah's my…my friend." He smiled.

"You're one of Sarah's friends?" Toby asked excitedly. "That means your…um…Higgle, or something?"

The dwarf growled. "My name is _Hoggle_!" He rolled his eyes. "Ugh, I suppose that's what ya get from spendin' too much time with _Jareth_."

"Jareth? The Goblin King?"

"That'd be him," Hoggle said. "And I know the rat's got yer sister and sent you to find her in the Labyrinth. Right?"

Toby nodded miserably.

"Right, well, I'm here to help you through the Labyrinth."

Toby beamed. "You're going to help me get Sarah back? Yay!" He rushed forward and hugged Hoggle the same way Sarah would have, and Hoggle mildly fought Toby as he would have with Sarah even though the hug melted his heart.

Hoggle cleared his throat. "Right, erm, well…. You only have thirteen hours, so we better start hurrying."

"But we have a big problem," Toby said gravely. "How do we get into the Labyrinth?"

A huge set of double-doors overgrown with vines creaked loudly as it slowly swung open, drawing attention to it. Hoggle didn't look surprised, but Toby gaped at it.

"But that wasn't here before!" Toby exclaimed. "I checked _all over_!"

Hoggle shook his head, entering the Labyrinth first. "Toby, ya can't ever take anything for granted in the Labyrinth. Do ya understand that? Nothing is ever what it seems."

Toby nodded. "It seems scary, does that mean that it's not scary?"

"The Labyrinth can be very scary. There's traps almost everywhere ya turn. Ya have to be very careful. _But_, most likely, if there's a way in, there's a way out. Don't worry though, long as ya got me with ya, I'll make sure nothin' bad happens to ya. I promise Sarah."

Toby was confused. "Which way to we go?" he asked nervously. "There's no signs or anyone to ask for directions. That's stupid. The mall has signs everywhere. Jareth should put up some signs."

"'_Bog this way, oubliette that way,'_" Hoggle grumbled.

"What?" Toby asked.

"I said we should go left," Hoggle said.

"Okay!" Toby said, skipping off.

* * *

><p>Sarah still sat on the windowsill in the throne room, now surrounded by several goblins who stared as intently as she did into the crystal she held. She was watching Toby and Hoggle slowly but surely make their way through the Labyrinth. The first hour was up and Toby was in the general area Sarah had been when she was tricked into the Shaft of Hands and down into an oubliette.<p>

The King was draped in his throne, and had made yet another costume change into what Sarah assumed were his relaxing clothes. His clothes were still very fine; his black boots and gloves, black pants, and a white shirt. That silk was going to be the death of her, hanging off him to perfectly loose and open to his chest….

But she focused _very_ intently on the crystal.

…

And he was _very _distracting.

The only thing Sarah felt real pleasure in was knowing that he must have been just as bored as she was, if not more. He frequently looked at the clock, sometimes producing a crystal of two to idly juggle, but more or less he looked like he was deep in thought. He also had a riding crop, which he rhythmically tapped against either his boot or the side of his throne.

A _riding crop_. Seriously?

Sarah had never seen that addition to his outfits before. It puzzled her, because she wondered what purpose it served. Surface deep, she saw no purpose. Thinking about it more, she knew she really didn't want to know the answer to that. It could have only been for his style, like the glitter was…. Whatever it was, it was easy to say that the sight scared her.

"How is our young friend doing, Sarah?" he asked suddenly.

Sarah looked at him for a moment before returning her attention to the crystal. "Toby is doing just fine, actually. In fact, he keeps this up, he just might make it here in time. Nervous, Goblin King?"

His head lazily fell back as he laughed. "Not in the least, precious. And you?"

"Nope."

He started tapping with the riding crop again, putting his other had thoughtfully against his check. "Well then, if he's doing as well as you say, I may need to deduct three hours from his time. What say you, love?"

"_Bastard_," Sarah muttered.

* * *

><p>"I think we're lost, Hoggle," Toby said. "Are you sure there isn't a map around?"<p>

Hoggle sighed in exasperation. "For the last time, Toby, the Labyrinth doesn't have any directions! We have to figure it out on our own. Just pick a direction, you're doing fine."

Toby sighed and asked softly, "Do you really think we can get to Sarah in time?"

Hoggle hesitated.

"I mean," Toby said, "I really want Sarah back. I want to show her how brave I am. She always tells me her stories about the Labyrinth, and it makes me wanna be like her. I wanna be her hero, and the hero's aren't supposed to lose. I don't wanna lose Sarah."

"Toby," Hoggle said gently, "if ya want Sarah back that bad, I believe you can get her back. If your will is as strong…."

"But I don't have a will!" Toby exploded in horror. "I'm not dead!"

Hoggle groaned and rolled his eyes. "Not _that _kind of a will. You're makin' it hard to be encouraging. Didn't Sarah tell ya how to defeat Jareth?"

Toby nodded and faintly smiled, feeling a bit of pride in his big sister, the brave heroine. "She said, 'You have nooooo power over me!'" he sing-songed.

"Exactly," Hoggle said, hedging. "And what she told him was true. Do you remember what she said before that?"

Toby knew the story by heart. He threw out his arms, hopped up on a nearby boulder, and acted out the scene with very dramatic body language in a very Sarah-like fashion. "'Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom as great."

Hoggle waved his hands and stopped Toby. "Now see? See right there? That's what I mean. 'My will is as strong as yours.' Before your sister, no one had a will that matched Jareth's, therefore no one's power was as great. But if your will is as strong, you can get through the Labyrinth and get your sister back."

"I can do that," Toby said determinedly, hopping down from the rock. He grabbed Hoggle's hand and started running. "Well, c'mon then! We have to rescue Sarah! Before we're all outta time!"

Hoggle, surprisingly enough, allowed himself to be dragged along by the dogged seven-year-old. At first, when Jareth showed up and forced him to be Toby's "guide" through the Labyrinth, he only thought about the thirteen hours that would be wasted when he could have been spraying pesky fairies. But the more he and Toby walked on, the more he really thought about he, he actually considered that Toby had a very good chance at making it through the Labyrinth and reaching Sarah in time. After all, who's will was more pure, powerful, or determined than that of a child?

Maybe, just maybe, Jareth took something for granted.

Just like he did the first time.

Sarah briefly closed her eyes and sighed, lowering the crystal from her face.

"So dismayed, precious," the Goblin King mocked. "Have you no faith in your brother?"

She didn't reply. Instead she turned slightly to see the vastness of the Labyrinth from the view of the tower's window, to remind herself just how far Toby really had to travel to reach her.

But, hey, she did it before. And she did it in ten hours, not thirteen. Toby certainly wasn't stupid, he could accomplish a lot when he set his mind to it.

_What do you think you're doing, Sarah? _some inner voice asked her wearily. _Come on, you know Toby won't make it. Look at the Labyrinth. You remember everything you faced, and you barely made it with _three _friends helping you at the age of fourteen. Toby only has Hoggle, and he's not even allowed to really help. _

The voice was right. How could she still hold hope that Toby would actually make it to her in time? She had to face it sooner or later; she was going to be stuck in the Labyrinth for the rest of her life. Stuck with the Goblin King—who had recently made it clear that he considered some kind of twisted, sick revenge on her for defeating him.

_He has no power over me. He has no power over me. He has no—_

She risked a glance at him, unaware that he was watching her, and with lustful eyes and a feral smile no less.

_Bullshit!_

She gulped and turned back to the Labyrinth, trying to ignore his gaze burning in the back of her head and the suddenly very loud tapping of his riding crop.

Skip patted her knee, longing to reassure her. "Don't be sad, Lady," he said. "We don't want you to be sad here."

She gave him a small smile. "Thank you, Skip. Don't worry, I'll be alright."

"Why Lady sad?" a small goblin asked, wrapping his arms around her arm and snuggling against her.

Then all the goblins that sat on the sill around her were touching her, meaning to be soothing to her.

"Oh. I'm just worried about my brother, is all," she told them, which wasn't a lie.

"No worries," Skip said. "No sad, Lady. Want us to sing to cheer you up?"

"Sing?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow.

They nodded enthusiastically. "Singing always makes King happy," Skip said. "Sometimes when King is happy, he sings to us."

Sarah thought about it. "Well, I guess. It'll probably help kill some time too. I like to sing, so, why not? I'd love to hear you guys sing."

The cheered. Sarah glimpsed the Goblin King's shear annoyance as pinched the bridge of his nose. She though he heard him mutter, "You'll regret that."

The goblins began their song.

_"When despair cuts like ice,_

_happiness surely holds a high price. _

_Even as he knew the sin, _

_all the while he did only grin."_

Sarah found herself a little impressed. They weren't half bad, they even harmonized and danced. But the song was…not so cheery. Though they laughed, the words held a dark aspect.

_"There was no reason to be distraught,_

_even when he was lost and caught. _

_He had no life for start. _

_His mind was sure to come apart." _

_"Now he'll spend his life of hell, _

_in a blackened, dirty cell. _

_In the mind of the man who does nothing but dwell _

_repeatedly rings euphoria's bell. _

_With nothing to do but yell, yell, yell, _

_in the dungeon he will forever dwell."_

The song ended, and it could be seen that they were happy with themselves and their performance. Sarah didn't feel as so happy, and apparently neither did their King who was then sitting upright in his seat, glaring with daggers. The goblins continued dancing—or tumbling rather—and cackling, some continuing to softly hum on the tune.

The Goblin King slapped his riding crop hard on the arm of the throne. The goblins jumped and silenced. He didn't miss how Sarah jumped at the loud crack either, but her didn't look at her. "Idiots," he hissed before slumping back against the throne.

"Did Lady like our song?" Skip asked.

Sarah shook the surprised, slightly horrified look off her face. "Oh…uh..umm. It was good. I mean, you guys did a great job singing it, but only…it didn't really cheer me up."

"Why not?" one asked her.

Sarah wondered how to put it delicately. She didn't want to upset them. "Well…because it wasn't a happy song."

"Makes us laugh all the time," one contradicted.

The King _hmph_ed.

"What wasn't happy?" Bat asked.

"The lyrics," Sarah told them. "Don't you understand them? Or…do I just not understand them? It's about a dungeon dweller, someone going crazy because he lives in a dungeon."

They nodded. "Yep," Murr said, "we know what's it about."

"But it's okay," Skip said, "because he got out of the dungeon anyway."

"Is there more to the song?" Sarah asked.

Skip shook his head. "Nope. That's it."

"Than how do you know he got out?" she asked curiously.

Skip pointed to the Goblin King. "Because he's sitting right there."

All eyes turned to the King, including Sarah's eyes.

The King's eyes widened for a second before they narrowed, clearly furious. Then he smirked coldly. "Traitors," he muttered to the goblins, indifferently adjusting his leather gloves.

* * *

><p>Y'know I always thought there was time enough<br>To win the game  
>But now I know times are rough<br>The seasons changed  
>Times are strange<br>Somewhere I crossed the line  
>Somewhere I'm lost in time<br>I lost my soul and now I'm losing my mind  
>Time to kill<p>

-Alice Cooper: "Time To Kill"

* * *

><p><strong>Sooooooooo...what do ya think? please review and let me know!<strong>

**"The Dungeon Dweller" is all my own rhymes. **

**yeah, the goblins don't know what really makes a human happy, but they had the best interests at heart. Poor Jareth is not a fan of that song, SINCE IT'S ABOUT HIM! clearly, he's not amused. **


	4. WindUp Toy

**Thank you so much to all of you who are reading this and for all your kind reviews!  
>The eternal question: WHY does The Goblin King wear those gloves? Y'all are about to find out.<br>ENJOY!**

"What do they mean?" Sarah asked. "Is the song…about _you_?"

The Goblin King sighed wearily. "Yes, it is about me. Me past almost four centuries, but me still."

Sarah's eyes widened. "Four centuries? How old _are _you?"

He smirked. "Old enough to know not to answer that question."

"Okay. What about the song then?" she pressed.

He first gazed over the sea of goblins—who no doubt had heard the whole story before—before he looked at her. It seemed that he had no intention of telling the story, until he stood and began sauntering towards her.

"It's not one of my better periods of time," he said. "I don't like to talk about it. But…I can show you."

Sarah didn't say anything, unsure of if she wanted to let him "show" her anything. He took her silence for passiveness and took the crystal ball from her hand. As he rolled it over his hands, he watched it very intently, something he never did. Sarah focused on it too, but she couldn't see anything. He abruptly placed it back in her hands. The goblins moved closer to peer inside the crystal like she did.

At first, she didn't notice the man she saw as the Goblin King. He certainly looked like no king. He wore his usual style of clothes, but they were covered in dirt and ripped up. His wild blonde hair was longer, smoothed down and dark from dirt and sweat. And any exposed skin, including his face, was covered with—_oh my God_—bruises and open cuts beneath all the dirt.

He sat in a small, dark cell with stone walls, no windows, and the only way out was a metal door. The dirt ground looked wet. There was writing on the walls, words in strange lettering that Sarah couldn't understand. He sat in the corner of the cell, his hands chained to the wall. At first he looked to be sleeping, his head hanging, but then she could hear him muttering. And the muttering grew gradually louder, but she still couldn't make out the words because he was speaking in a different language.

Then he chuckled, laying his head back against the wall, his hair falling away from his face. He was grinning in the most wicked way. His eyes were alert and restless. He truly had a pitiful and crazed look about him.

"I've _told _you," he said, "I didn't do anything wrong!" He shrieked in rage and yanked against his chains, and blood dripped down his arms from under the metal shackles around his wrists. He dug the heel of his boot into the ground, kicking up dirt in anger. "Unchain me! Release me at once! I'll have you all drinking from the Bog for the rest of your pitiful lives!"

Then he fell abruptly silent and still. A thoughtful look came over his face. Then he exploded into hysteric laughter. Sarah cringed at the sound.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" he cackled. And he stopped. "Liar!" he spat. "Let me out of here!"

And he relaxed, his face reflecting perfect peace. "No," he said softly, "You want to stay here. You like it here. Deranged people have no cares. They take care of you here." He laughed quietly. "Yes, they take care of you. Very well. Yes, very well, I shall stay."

Once again, the mad laughter resounded in the cell. "You have thirteen hours in which to solve the Labyrinth…." His broken, bloodied fingernails scraped into the wall behind him. "Tick-tock tick-tock. Look…look at what I'm offering you. A crystal, nothing more."

He paused.

"Nothing more, nothing more. Sometimes the way forward is the way back."

He growled and kicked the air, pulling once more on the chains until he cried out in pain. "I said let me out! I am a king! I am the Goblin King! I don't belong in here!" He giggled. "Who are you? I know who you are. You're the Goblin King. I want my child back!"

There was a loud banging on the cell door. He flinched away, muttering, "Knock knock, who's there, goblins, goblins goblins everywhere, nothing more."

The door swung open, and a tall, very built man entered the room. "I thought I told you to _SHUT UP_, _Your Highness_!" the man roared, sneering the King's title.

He only snickered.

Then Sarah saw the whip in the man's hand. With an evil smile, the man hit the defenseless King across the face with the handle of the whip. Sarah couldn't help it, she jumped and slapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming. The King hardly uttered a sound, but when he turned his head back there was a fresh mark and an old wound reopened.

"The answer I give is yes, but what I mean is no. What was the question?"

The man shook his head. "You stupid faeries. Goblin King, you just don't know when you should shut up, do you?"

The Goblin King sung: _"Would it be too much to ask if you would join me for a dance? The mood is fine, the stars do shine, a moon so bright, bathed in white, a land so green, a sky serene. Give love a chance, join me for a—"_

And he was cut off as the man cut a sharp lash of the whip across his stomach.

Sarah looked away, cupping her crystal between her hands to vanish the scene. She couldn't look at it any more. The Goblin King—the one who stood before her, the seductive and intimidating and regal Goblin King—mercifully took the crystal from her and stopped the flashback scene.

For the first time, the throne room was completely silent. Even the chickens fell silent. It took a while before Sarah could speak.

"That was awful," she said, her voice just a whisper. "I'm…so sorry."

The King looked at her contemptuously and put a hand under her chin to force her to look at him. "I didn't show you it so I could have your pity," he said harshly. "I showed you only so you could have better knowledge of who I really am, to know that the madness still lingers and you should keep that in mind when you think about crossing me."

_"Can you imagine I went a little mad when you left?"_

Sarah jerked her head away from h is hand and wiped the tears that, to her surprise, began forming in her eyes.

"How long where you there?" she asked softly.

He shrugged a little. "I don't know. I wasn't exactly keeping time if you noticed. Half a century, at least."

Sarah couldn't imagine having to go through that for so long. She couldn't imagine how it must have been just going through that one scene. She wondered how quickly he reached that point of madness.

"How'd it happen?"

He mused for a moment. "I suppose the vague first stanza of the song doesn't say much…. That was shortly after I took the throne to the Goblin Kingdom. The throne is not inherited through family generations like normal. The goblins and the Labyrinth chose me as the sole leader of the Labyrinth and the Goblin City. I wasn't happy about it, forced into the throne of all this…" he arched an eyebrow as he gestured to his surroundings, "_glory_."

That surprised Sarah. She would have thought that he would have gone as far as taken the throne by force, wanting nothing more than to be king. That was wrong to think, she realized, knowing that he really never wanted the throne to begin with.

He continued. "I wasn't happy at all when I became king, and I hated that there wasn't a way out of it. I spent most of my time thinking about ways I could pass the position to someone else—anyone else. But even if the Labyrinth was willing to take another ruler, no one wanted the throne. The goblins…aren't the most love of creatures in the Underground. It took centuries to build a name for myself, but that's a different story.

"Like it was said, despair cuts like ice. I didn't know what to do. I went to the farthest end of the Underground, to the Winterlands, to the Ice Witch. I hadn't seen this woman since I was a boy, and she gifted me with the ability to turn into a white owl. I explained my situation and she promised to take the Labyrinth off my hands, asking for nothing in exchange. I was so foolish. I was only too happy to name her queen and denounce my own title, fleeing to her kingdom to hide.

"There was one real reason she wanted my kingdom. She wanted a unique flower that only grew in the Labyrinth and only during winter, the Frostbite flower. It is very poisonous to every magical being in the Underground, when ingested. She poisoned the entire royal family of Naturia, the nature kingdom at the farthest end of the Underground. The Goblin Kingdom was allied with Naturia, the Winterlands were not by any means. She held a great grudge against the king there, an ex-lover.

"In conclusion, when she was caught and condemned, held captive in Naturia, her pleas included insisting that I was the one who forced her to carry out that heinous act of cold-blooded murder. I thought there was no possible way I could be convicted of any crime. But it was treason against my kingdom, against Naturia, against the royal court; so is the beginning of a very long list.

"I was thrown into that cell, both the cell and that chains that bound me enchanted and created from a mix of magic and natural elements that suppressed my magic, which at the time wasn't as strong as it is now. So I spent my time there, every day as you witnessed through this crystal, until the goblins and the Labyrinth figured I had enough. My magic is linked strongly to the Labyrinth, I learned that when it helped me escape, gave me enough power to return here. And so here I've been ever since. More or less."

"What happened to the Ice Queen?"

Jareth's eyes darkened. "Released," he hissed. "After a measly month in a cell, she was not convicted. Still, she's no longer around. Believe me you, I got my revenge on her."

Sarah swallowed, trying to keep her expression under control. Her mind and body were screaming to flee the room, so she had no clue how she continued to sit there.

Jareth still noticed her fear. To make it worse, he flashed her a feral smile. "Madness, my dear. It is truly horrid what a madman thinks, and how he acts. I had no control, but I don't regret it."

She tried to convince herself that the Queen did deserve it anyway—whatever "it" was. That was right though. She killed so many people, hurt so many innocents, so she deserved her wicked end. Was Jareth supposed to be gloating about it? A sane man really wouldn't.

She didn't like being around an insane man.

Jareth held out a gloved hand. Sarah stared at him, then down at his hand, not sure what he wanted. Then she thought of something. Looking up at his strikingly beautiful face, she remembered the same face covered in dirt, blood, and bruises. Surely from all those wounds, a person was bound to have scars. He didn't have any. But….

"Why do you wear gloves?" she asked suspiciously.

His face went completely blank, his hand falling limp. Then he slowly smirked, a look of almost approval in his eyes. It was like he knew exactly what she had been thinking. "Clever girl," he murmured.

Very carefully, precisely, he took off one glove, and then the other. She couldn't see anything of his hands but pale skin until he pushed up his sleeves and held his hands out. His wrists were marred with dark purple scars all around. Christina nodded, understanding.

"Those manacles were unkind," he said, swiftly pulling his gloves back on and fixing himself, "that iron having quite a nasty effect on my skin. But honestly, I suppose I did do it to myself."

He brusquely took her hand, turned it over, and placed a crystal into it before releasing her.

"Watch our young friend, will you?" he instructed, beginning to walk away. "Don't worry, I'll return with much time left for our fun."

Before he fully disappeared from sight, Sarah heard him softly singing. "…_a moon so bright, bathed in white, a land so green, a sky serene. Give love a chance, join me for a dance."_

* * *

><p>I'm lost in a nightmare<br>Shiny white halls  
>Drawing rats on the wall<br>Solitary confinement  
>Chained in a cell<br>got my own private hell

-Alice Cooper, "Wind-up Toy"

* * *

><p><strong>No Toby in this chapter. He will be in the next. This chapter was strictly learning a bit about the Goblin King himself. What do you guys think of him now?<strong>

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	5. Sister Sara

**Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah **Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah **Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah **Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah **Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah **Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah **Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah **Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah Sarah.****************

******And if I ever call her "Christina" again, I will beat my head against the wall as many times as I've wrote her name above. I can't believe how many times I've done that! I'm so sorry. "Christina" is a character in my novel who I always have on my mind, so that explains that.******

******At least I've never screwed up Jareth's name on here. I have done that while I was speaking. "Jasper" or "Kainen" sometimes while I'm writing.******

****************Jeez.****************

******Anywho! ENJOY!******

Sarah still held a crystal Jareth gave her to watch her brother in, but she wasn't really watching Toby then. She felt guilty for not keeping an eye on him, not rooting for him to make it to the castle in time, but she couldn't help it. Her mind was a little numb. Reeling from shock probably.

She did her best to shake herself out of it.

The worst thing, she thought, was that sometime during the course of Jareth's storytelling, she started to think of him as _Jareth_. Not The Goblin King. Jareth. She had personalized him in her mind. And she did it without even realizing she had.

It was futile to continue thinking of him as nothing more than The Goblin King. It was just too hard to constantly remind herself to keep as distant as possible from him. If things turned out in his favor, she would be spending the rest of her life with him, so why bother? But she vowed that she would not use his name out loud.

She felt a tug at her jeans. Tearing her gaze away from the view of the Labyrinth, she looked down and met Skip's concerned orange eyes.

"How is the boy doing?" he asked.

Sarah sighed and lifted the crystal to her face to peer inside. "At least he hasn't walked into any oubliettes. Hoggle's good at keeping him out of danger's path, but not exactly helping him find the castle. I think…I think they're near the Fiery Forest."

She groaned in frustration and banged her fist against the stone sill.

"_Ow_," she hissed, rubbing her hand.

Some goblins snickered, despite the dirty look she shot their way.

"It's not _fair_," Sarah muttered. "He's just a kid. He shouldn't have to go through this. It's all my fault."

In the crystal, Hoggle and Toby were trying to pry open an arched, wooden door. Sarah shook her head. She longed so much to be there with Toby, to adventure with him, show him the way through the Labyrinth. There was _no way _they were getting that door open, at least not _that _way.

Suddenly, she got an idea.

A wild idea, but one that might just work.

The crystal was from Jareth. Jareth was magical. The crystal was magical.

The crystal contained magic.

Magic could grant wishes.

Maybe, just maybe, if she said her right words, the magic of the crystal would help her out.

Well…it was worth a shot.

She closed her eyes, and took a few deep breathes to ready herself. She held the crystal tightly between two hands, clutching it to her chest.

Very clearly, and with all her heart, she declared, "I wish I was in the Labyrinth standing next to Toby, right _now_."

A wind came from nowhere, whipping her hair around her face. She gasped, her eyes snapping open. She felt sick. And dizzy. The room was whirling. But it was working.

The goblins had gone completely silent and still as soon as Sarah said her words. They watched as she disappeared, faded and warped, and produced a lot of glitter. The last thing of her before she was completely gone were her pleading words hanging in the air.

_"Please don't tell the Goblin King!"_

The goblins looked at each other.

Skip narrowed his eyes at the spot where Sarah had been sitting. He climbed up onto the sill and sat back against the wall as Sarah had been doing. The spot was warm, and smelt like her.

"Tell King?" he said. "But…he already knows."

* * *

><p>"Push haaaaaarrrrrdeeeerrr!" Toby squealed as he braced all his weight against the door. He was gritting his teeth from the work. His feet were slipping out from underneath him. The door wasn't budging.<p>

"I _am _pushin', Toby!" Hoggle cried back, huffing. He gave up. "No good! It won't move at all!"

Toby turned and slumped against the door, and slid down to the floor. "But how are we supposed to get in?"

" We ain't gettin' in through there, I'll tell ya that. What we need is—ACK!"

Hoggle's face hit the ground. He sputtered and squirmed under crushing weight.

Sarah fell out of the sky—literally. She landed on Hoggle, and didn't know until she pushed herself up onto her knees. Hoggle growled and scrambled to his feet.

"Hey, what's the big idea—!" he began to fume, then stopped as she recognized Sarah. His eyes widened. "Sarah. Sarah? Sarah, yer here. B-but—how?—why?—when?—huh?"

"Hoggle!" Sarah cried in joy, throwing her arms around him to hug him tightly, then kissing his cheek. Hoggle gagged and tried to push her away. "Oh, Hoggle, I've missed you so much! I'm so happy to see you."

"SAAAAAAR-AAAHHHH!" Toby screamed, attacking his sister from behind.

Sarah wrestled Toby back. She laughed as she tickled him, with him screaming and laughing in delight. When she let him breathe, he hugged Sarah with a chocking grip.

"Sarah, how'd you get here?" he asked. "I was coming to rescue you. Jareth told me you were at his castle. Did he let you go?"

Sarah gently pushed him back by the shoulders to look him in the eyes. "No, Toby, he didn't let me go. But that doesn't matter. I think I can only stay for a little while, but I'm here to help you get to the castle."

Toby's eyes were wide. "He didn't let you go? What if he comes here looking for you?"

Sarah had been thinking the same thing, but she kept a sweet smile for Toby and patted his cheek. "Well then, you get to see me kick the Goblin King's butt in real life. That's better than some story, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah!" Toby said in excitement. "But I love your stories too."

Sarah stood and helped Toby to his feet. "I know. Though, after we get out of here, I'm not sure if you'll ever need me to tell you a story again. You'll have your own story to tell everyone."

"I will?" he asked, puzzled. He wasn't as good a storyteller as Sarah. His mom always got mad when he started blurting out wild stories. His parents called it "lying" which was wrong, but Sarah told him that he had a good imagination. That's why even if he had a story to tell, he could only tell it to Sarah. "About what?" he asked.

"About how you fought dangers untold," Sarah said ominously, in her storytelling voice, making Toby giggle, "and hardships unnumbered. And you made it to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City, with all the courage and strength of a real hero. And you fought the wicked Goblin King and _won_, and rescued your big sister."

"But you're already here," he pointed out.

"Yes, but like I said, I don't know how long I can stay for. You still have to reach the castle before your time runs out, or I'll be stuck here. No, no," she said quickly at the child's expression of panic, "it's okay, don't freak out. You can do this, Toby, I believe in you. Even if you don't make it to the castle, I'll be okay."

"But I wanna make it to the castle," he whined. "I'm supposed to be a knight on a quest. I wanna save you."

Sarah gave him a wry smile. "Well then…you better get that door open."

He glanced over at the wooden door and sighed dramatically. "But Saaar-aahhhh, it won't ooopeeeeeen."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Did you try knocking?"

Toby and Hoggle exchanged looks.

"Um…no," Toby shyly admitted.

"Well, go on and try, you silly boy!"

He gave Sarah a doubtful look before turning, starting to warily approach the door.

"Sarah," Hoggle hissed, his voice low so Toby wouldn't hear them conversing, "are ya mad? How did you even get here?"

Sarah crouched on the balls of her feet, and extended a hand towards him. She held a crystal ball. Her reflection mirrored in the sparkling surface of it. For a moment, Hoggle thought of Jareth making the same motion.

"With this," she said.

Hoggle near fainted. "D-don't tell me you _stole _that from _him_?"

She shook her head. "Nope. He _gave _it to me." She smiled, self-satisfied. "For once, I think I totally outsmarted him. I've been watching you guys through it the whole time. I don't think His Royal Arrogance anticipated that I would use it in this way."

Hoggle shook his head, batting the crystal away from his face. "I really don't think ya realize how evil Jareth is. He probably wanted ya to do just this so he has reason to do somthin' to _you_."

"Sarah," Toby said, "I knocked and nothing happened. Is there a doorbell?"

"There might be, Toby. Why don't you look for one?"

"Okay!"

Hoggle shook Sarah roughly by the shoulders to regain her attention. "You stupid girl! He's got all the power in the world over you! Circumstances have changed. Yer not the one runnin' the Labyrinth anymore. He's got no power over Toby. But yous was wished away to _him_, you _belong_ to _him_. Don't ya realize? He'll throttle us all when he comes to take ya back."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Look, I know what I wished for. I'll take the consequences. But when Toby reaches the castle, he has _no power over me_. Anyway, I have a feeling this fight is really just between me and him. He won't even bother to hurt you two."

Hoggled glowered. "I wouldn't put _nothin' _past that rat. He'd torture us all for eternity just for his own amusement."

"SAR-AAAHH!" Toby cried in frustration. "There's no doorbell! What good is a door that won't open?"

Sarah looked at the red-face child, and smiled sympathetically. "Uh…why don't you try the other door?"

Toby quickly looked around. There was another door set in the stone right next to the first. He gasped and sputtered, but at first didn't get a word out.

"But that wasn't there before—!"

Sarah drowned him out. "Hoggle"—she flashed a dry smile—"don't take anything for granted. Toby can make it to the castle, and now that he's got my help we'll make it there in time. I don't want to waste the time left arguing with you about _him_."

Toby tapped her shoulder. "It's open," he said brightly.

Sarah stood and beamed at him, ruffling his hair. "Great job, Toby. I can't believe how smart you are. Let's go."

Hoggled grumbled and shook his head as he followed behind the two too-enthusiastic Williams siblings who were really dangerously ignorant of their situation. "I can already _smell _the Bog," he muttered.

* * *

><p><em>"Turn back now."<em>

_ "Beware. BEWARE."_

_ "This is not the way."_

_ "Soon it will be too late."_

Toby didn't realize just how grateful he was to have Sarah with him until they entered the dark tunnel, and he pressed himself close to Sarah.

She rubbed his arm. "It's alright, Toby. They're just False Alarms. The Labyrinth is full of them. Don't listen to them, because we _are _going the right way."

Sarah couldn't help herself but to sigh and reminisce her encounter with Jareth in the tunnels. The Cleaners. But there were no crystals around—other than the one she held—and therefore no Jareth around. There was no beggar sitting against the wall. There were no evil death-machines heading towards them.

There was, however, a locked gate that blocked them from going into the tunnel very far.

"Now what?" Toby asked.

"Yeah, now what?" Hoggle mocked bitterly.

Sarah thought for a second, and experimentally pushed against the walls. _Hmmm_, she thought, _sturdier than last time_. Then she started hunting through her pockets…and pulled out a bobby pin with a triumphant, "Ah-ha!"

"A little trick," she said as she took hold of the lock. "This was how my friends and I always pranked the teachers in high school; picking the locks."

She felt the lock with her fingers, searching for the keyhole. She smiled, and stuck her other hand through the bars, positioning the bobby pin.

"Don't you _dare_ stick that thing in me!"

Sarah straightened. She looked behind her and shared confused looks with Toby and Hoggle. "Did…did one of you just say something?"

"Did you hear me? Are you deaf? Get that thing away from me!"

It was the lock talking.

"It won't work anyway, you know. I'm the only thing that can open this gate. You hear me? You're not getting through here. Not unless _I _open the gate."

"Well…couldn't you open it for us?" Sarah asked, then added a sweet, "Please?" after a moment.

"Mmmm…nope. 'Fraid not."

Sarah frowned.

"Why not?" Toby asked.

"Beeeecaaause, I can't. I have orders to obey, you know! The highest position of authority isn't usually given to a keyhole. I'm under strict orders to never—under anyone's order other than the Goblin King's—open this gate to runners. Do you have any idea what would happen if I did? They would smelt me down into a horse shoe! Ha! No thanks!"

"Alright, alright," Sarah said, trying to ease the hysterical lock pad. "You don't have to open the gate then. But can you tell us how to get to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City?"

"The Castle Beyond the Goblin City?" the lock exploded. "You wanna get to the Castle Beyond the Goblin City? The Goblin King's castle? That castle? And you want _me _to tell you the way?"

Sarah arched an eyebrow. "Did I stutter?"

"I don't think so, lady. You're out of your mind. Did you fall into an oubliette or something?"

"What's an oubliette?" Toby whispered.

"Yes, actually, I have," Sarah said. "But that's digressing. All we want to know is how to get to the castle. And _fast_. Why can't you just tell us that?"

"Why? WHY? Well…well…b-because…." It stopped and thought. "Hmm….why?" it asked reflectively.

"See?" Sarah said. "You said you couldn't open the gate. We're not asking you to open the gate, just to tell us the way. There's no rule against that, is there?"

"I…well…it would seem that you're right. I recall no such restrictions." It cleared its…throat? Rather, it made a throat-clearing sound. "Directly to your right, there should be a secret door. A cluster of stones that sticks out a little oddly. Just wiggle the section out and crawl through the tunnel. It's a long tunnel, just so you know, but it's a brilliant short cut. It'll take you more than halfway to the castle."

"Well, thank you, sir!" Sarah said in excitement as she and Toby went to do as he said.

"No problem at all," the lock responded, complacent with a job well done.

They would have to literally crawl through the tunnel, on their hands and knees. It was dark inside. Sarah stuck a hand in and felt ghostly cobwebs. She grimaced.

"It's so dark, Sarah," Toby said, his voice quiet with fear.

"I know, Toby," she said softly. "But it's going to be okay. I'll be right here. Do you want me to go first?"

He thought for a second. "No. I wanna go first."

He unsurely moved towards the entrance. It really was pitch black. But he didn't back down. He started slowly crawling forward. Sarah stayed close behind. Hoggle followed.

"If you feel something touching your legs, Toby," she warned, "it's just me. Are you okay?"

He nodded, but Sarah couldn't see it. "I feel something in front of me, and under my hands. I think it's bugs. Or rats. Or something like that."

Sarah made a starling choking sound. "Oh, Toby. I'm so sorry."

"For what?" he asked in confusion.

"For everything," she said. "You must hate this so much. I'm sorry you have to go through all of this. But it's all my fault."

"Are you crying, Sarah?" he asked in surprise. "But it's not your fault. It's my fault. I'm the one who didn't believe your stories and wished you away."

"No. _I'm _the one who didn't believe the stories," she said. "Toby, I have something to tell you, and you'll hate me for it."

"I could never hate you."

Another strangled sob. "Toby…when you were one…I wished you away to the Goblin King. I was angry because you wouldn't stop crying. I was stupid and childish. Just like you, I didn't know that the Goblin King would really come. You know the story I tell you about me fighting my way through the Labyrinth and defeating the King? I'm sure by now you know that the story was real. I had to get to the castle, otherwise the Goblin King would have kept you forever. I was lucky enough to win you back."

They crawled on in silence for a long time.

"I _knew _I knew Jareth from somewhere before," he mused.

Sarah gasped. "You remember him?"

"Yeah. I remember his goblins too. He was singing and dancing, I think."

"Do you hate me?" Sarah asked softly.

Toby shook his head wildly. "I said I could never hate you. And you saved me. And mom would yell at me if I didn't forgive you. She's always saying Jesus believe in forgiveness and that stuff…."

Sarah laughed breathlessly. "Yeah, right. I'm just so sorry I wished you away. We're only here because the Goblin King wants revenge on me for defeating him."

"I'm sorry for wishing you away too."

"Well this has been touchin' an all," Hoggle interrupted, "but can ya move a little faster? I don't wanna be stuck in this tunnel all day."

"When I defeat Jareth," Toby inquired, "do you think he'll want revenge again?"

Sarah chuckled. "Toby, if you defeated Jareth, his ego would be so wounded that he would hide under a rock for a thousand years."

Toby laughed at the thought and mental image.

"Yous better just hope he don't hear all this," Hoggle grumbled. "And if he does, I don't know either one of yous!"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Oh, be quiet, Hoggle. And move a little faster. You wouldn't to be left behind now."

"_Ow_!"

"Oof!"

"Hey!"

Toby rubbed his head to dull the pain from hitting into the wall in front of him. Sarah and Hoggle shook themselves from the unexpected short-stop.

"Are you okay, Toby?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah. But we reached the end. How do we get out? Do I knock?"

"Oh, I don't know!" Sarah said, exasperated. "Just _push _or something! I _hate _this place."

Toby started pushing against it. It was heavy, but it wobbled a little. He pushed harder, and it started to tip forward. Sarah leaned over him to help push. The rock fell, and let in light that burned their eyes. They pushed it away from the opening and crawled out into the relieving fresh air.

Crawled up?

They came out of the floor. They were at the end of the hedge mazes. Sarah knew this was right before the Firey Forest.

"Well, we're out," Sarah said.

Hoggle and Toby looked at her to agree. And their eyes widened at the same time.

Sarah tilted her head a bit, about to ask what was wrong.

"I think not."

She screamed in surprise and spun around, eyelevel with a familiar royal pendant. She looked up. Jareth was glaring down at her. His eyes chilled her to the bone, like she could feel the color of his eyes sweeping over her as ice cold as they looked. His gloved hands trapped her tightly be her upper arms, like she _wasn't _so afraid that she was about to run.

"You are still very much _in _it, precious," he hissed.

* * *

><p>"Sister Sara<br>It's your penalty for eternity  
>Did you think that you were saved<br>You forget your old identity who you used to be  
>Sister Sara<br>So depraved  
>Moment to moment<br>Hour to hour  
>We'll be together"<p>

-Alice Cooper, "Sister Sara"

* * *

><p><strong>Weeeeeeeeeell...whatdaya think?<strong>

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	6. I'm Hungry

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**ENJOY! **

When Sarah and Jareth had materialized back into his castle, he wasted no time in lashing out on her. He held her by her upper arm, dragged her a few steps over, and roughly shoved her against the wall. Her back hit it hard, her head harder, but she stayed standing, regardless of how she felt nauseas from both fear and the trip there.

She hardly had time to register that she was in the ballroom she had danced with Jareth in six years earlier. She didn't know that was in his castle. She quickly remembered that it was in a bubble. It was probably a recreation.

Jareth's hands slammed down on the wall on either side of her head. He leaned down to be eye-level with her.

"You try my patience, _Sarah_."

She didn't respond. She didn't know why she stayed silent, narrowing it down to fear of his anger or defiance. The reasons were on opposite ends of the spectrum, but possibly she was quiet for both reasons. She tried not to look into his eyes. Whatever was there, she didn't want to see.

"Just how do you justify this? Hm? Toby needed _help_? You wanted to talk with the dwarf? 'It's not fair' what I do to you? _Sarah_."

She was trembling slightly. She still refused to meet his gaze.

He lifted his riding crop in his right hand. She flinched, pressing herself tightly against the wall, wishing for it to swallow her. Jareth didn't hit her. He menacingly trailed the cool leather tip down her cheek and jawline, and under her neck.

"_Look _at me, _Sarah_," he commanded, with all the authority of a king that simply couldn't be ignored. "You insolent girl."

His face was taut, his eyes a ragging blizzard. His hair looked slightly more crazed than usual.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't chain you to the dungeon wall."

"Because you have no p—"

He bared his teeth and grabbed her face in one hand. "I will strip you and chain you to my _bed_. I dare you to say it."

She pressed her lips together. Her hands balled into fists at her sides, aching to fight him, but she couldn't bring herself to do anything. After all, she had already anticipated the wrath of the Goblin King.

"You greatly misused those 'certain powers' I gave you, Sarah," he said. "I _could _have just bound your wrists and ankles and thrown you into a cage the moment you got here. As Hedgewart so kindly pointed out, you _belong _to _me _now. I _have _all the _power_ over you, Sarah. I could have already used that advantage." His finger slid from her face down to her neck. "Instead I chose to maintain some distance. I gave you freedom of time alone, a crystal to keep an eye on your brother, and granted permission for that infuriating dwarf to aid him. Instead it was _you _who took advantage of me."

His eyes darkened impossibly. His fingers, just above her collarbone, applied slightly more pressure.

"You took advantage of me _again_. Like a fool I let you. You're so _cruel_. You're even more wicked than I am. You pounce at any first sign of weakness and exploit it. No more, _precious_."

"I didn't meant to take advantage of you—"

"Oh, _yes _you did. You knew exactly what you were doing the entire time. You tried to cheat the Labyrinth again. You know the rules as well as I. Your brother must make it without help."

"Because that rule was so enforced the first time," she shot back. After the words were out of her mouth, she realized she shouldn't have said anything. Her words would only anger him. Plus, he would have no argument if she didn't feed him stuff to argue on.

His hand shot up and fisted around her hair, yanking her head back. "No mistakes from here on," he hissed in her ear. "What's done is done. But _you _will be punished for this little act of yours."

He released her completely and stepped back. She crumbled to the floor, tears falling freely.

"_How _to punish you is the question," he said contemplatively. "_I _have the power, may I remind you."

She had a feeling that he would be reminding her a lot.

"I can do anything I can think up. And I do have a rather sadistic way of thinking. You would deserve anything I come up with."

"It wasn't _that _bad," Sarah protested. "You really can't blame me for being a protective sister. I had to help him."

He tapped his riding crop against his boot impatiently. "I do not blame you for being a sister to him. You'll being punished for defying me. Last time the choice was between your brother and I, you favored him and spurned me aside. This time there will be repercussions for that choice."

"The choice will _always_ be him," she said quietly but ferociously.

"Then I'll have to think up more punishments."

She released a shuddering breath.

"Besides, you _know _you deserve to be punished. Didn't you tell Hoghead that you 'knew what you wished for' and would 'take the consequences'? Well, consequently, my dear, here's the situation. Did you or did you not say such a thing? Should I go asked him, perhaps he'll remember?"

"Yes," she bit out, "I _did _say that."

"Ah. And what do you think should be your punishment?"

_"Maybe, I think, I'll just keep you all to myself for personal torture. After all, I'd like to at least be around to see you suffer."_

She shrugged. "Dip me in the Bog?"

He tipped his head back and laughed. "Absolutely not. If you'll be around to be my personal slave, I'll not have you smelling like the Bog. I could bring back some earlier threats however. Chain you up, tie you down, strip you…."

Sarah was biting her lip so hard that she began tasting blood.

"You do remember this room, don't you?" he asked suddenly, gesturing around with his riding crop.

Of course she did. She never forgot. She thought about it all the time. It haunted her dreams; dancing with the Goblin King, a puffy white dress, masqueraders with faces like ugly goblins, a clock counting the hours with every tick like her lifeline, spinning and spinning and spinning….

She shrugged. "What about it?"

"It was a wonderful illusion, wasn't it?" he mused. "Dreams _are _such powerful illusions, don't you think? Really something to marvel at. I've always loved how much influence they really have over a dreamer. Dreams make a person believe anything is possible, and everything dreamt is completely _real_." He gave her a feral smile. "Oh, and I could tell how real everything seemed for you."

Her face burned, from both anger and embarrassment. When she looked up, Jareth was rolling a glittering crystal around his hands. _Oh no_, she mentally groaned. There was a sight brimming with trouble.

He crouched down in front of her. Flashbacks of his first appearance to her went through her mind. She really was a child again, entranced with his crystal magic, scared by his power, feeling inferior to the evil king before her. He rolled the crystal to a stop in his hand. He slowly turned his wrist, and the crystal melted into a different form. An apple—bright red and flawless.

"Forbidden fruit," he said mockingly.

Sarah stared at in fear. "You're going to force me into another dream?"

He laughed darkly. "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah," he chided, "oh no. Dreams are pleasant. Dreams are nothing to worry about. What sort of a punishment is that? No, Sarah. I'm going to give you a few nightmares."

Her gut wrenched at the idea. Nightmares from the Goblin King. His entire existence, his kingdom, his labyrinth were nightmares of the worst kind. How much worse could it get?

She had no desire to find out.

"What are you going to do?" she challenged, but her voice was quiet. "Are you going to force it down my throat?"

"No, my dear. You are going to _take it_. Willingly. Like a gateway of sorts. You see"— he spun the apple on the tip of his finger—"I'm not all that good at messing with free will. By power over mortals is restricted by their desires. If you don't desire for me to enter the realm of your mind and lace you up with horrible visions and dreadful nightmares, than I cannot. One bite of this apple"—he stopped its spinning, holding it in his hand like it was a delicate snowflake—"and I have your consent to do just that."

Sarah narrowed her eyes. "And exactly how many people desire for you create nightmares in their minds?"

His canine teeth—blood-sucking vampire fangs—gleamed dangerously. "You would be the first to willingly accept, completely aware of your situation."

"A little _too _aware, don't you think? Why in the world—_any _world—would I take that?"

"I believe we went over this. You'll take it because you already agreed to accept the consequences of your actions. You'll take it…because I might spare everyone you've ever known from my wrath." He lifted it a little higher, his eyes dancing with mischief. "Or I could just turn you over my knee."

Sarah grimaced. "Pervert."

"Well, Sarah, if you insist on acting like a child, you might find yourself being treated like one."

She glared at him for the longest time. He wasn't discouraged for a moment.

She hesitantly lifted a hand, and took the apple from him. His smirk broadened.

The apple was cool to the touch, the skin smooth as glass. She closed her eyes and brought the fruit to her lips, parting over it. The tip of her tongue touched it, sending a zing of extreme bitterness over her taste buds. She opened her mouth and sunk her teeth down into the apple, biting a piece off with a crunch. Sweet juice dripped over her lips and filled her mouth as she chewed.

She opened her eyes. Her vision was darkening already. She felt heavy. She was dizzy, and her mind muddled.

Jareth put his hands on her shoulders. He leaned forward, and he licked the apple juice from her lips.

Her eyes closed again on their own. She swayed and slumped into Jareth, the apple rolling out of her limp grasp. She breathed his name.

"Sweet dreams, princess," Jareth whispered.

* * *

><p>Toby was laying on the dusty ground, his face buried in his arms, sobbing. He had been in the same position for the past fifteen minutes. Hoggle was pulling his hair out. Every time Toby's crying seemed to soften, a loud wail restarted it.<p>

"Toby," Hoggle tried again. "C'mon. Ya gotta get up."

"Noooooooo," Toby moaned defiantly.

"Sarah's depending on ya. Didn't ya hear? We still gotta save her. Ya can't do _nothin'_ if you're gonna just sit there and cry." He sighed sharply and folded his arms across his chest. "How old are ya anyway?" he asked peevishly.

"Seven!"

"Seven," Hoggle repeated. "Seven. Get up! Start actin' like yer seven, and not two!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

And Hoggle thought Sarah was bad the first time. Toby was every bit as stubborn as her. His luck.

"Don't ya wanna save yer sister? Are ya just gonna let her stay with Jareth forever? Is that what you want?"

"NO!" Toby screamed. He rolled over onto his back. "I don't—I don't—want that. Jare—Jareth—Jareth's—evil—"

Hoggle rolled his eyes and tried a softer approach. "Toby, ya need to breathe. Just calm down now. Ya can't figure anythin' out like this."

Toby tried to take deep breaths, but it was more like hyperventilating with break-offs of sobs and coughing fits. Finally, he got to a relatively calm state. He wiped his arm across his nose while sucking in snot. Hoggle grimaced.

"How am I ever gonna get to Sarah?" he asked in despair. "We're only halfway there. And Jareth just took Sarah!"

"That's alright, Toby. He can't hurt her. All he did was take her back to the castle. That's where she is now, waiting for us to rescue her."

Hoggle hated lying to the boy, but it would be worse to say the truth. He had seen Jareth's face before he seized Sarah and they disappeared. He prayed that by some grace on Sarah's part he would be merciful. But Hoggle knew well that the Goblin King didn't make a habit of being merciful.

Toby sniffled. "I want to rescue her," he whispered, "but Jareth took her. I knew he would look for her. But…but I didn't even get to give her my picture."

"You can give it to her when we reach the castle," Hoggle said. "Right now, we're wastin' too much time. We gotta go now if we ever have a chance at reachin' her."

Toby sat up and rubbed his eyes. He sat in silence for a minute, thinking.

"Do you really think I can save Sarah?"

Hoggle blinked. And sighed softly. "Yes. I do believe that. As long as yer will is as strong."

Toby nodded. "It is. Oh, it is! I promise! I want Sarah back soooo bad. I'll never do anything bad again if I get her back. I'll never make her angry again. I'll even eat all my vegetables!"

"Well don't make those promises to _me_, boy," Hoggle said. "Tell yer sister those things, when we find her again. Now, are ya ready to go?"

Toby nodded again. "Yeah, I'm ready." He jumped to his feet and started running off. "Let's go."

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" Hoggle called.

Toby froze. "What?"

"Look."

Toby turned fully around and looked at where Hoggle was pointing. Two doors were set in the stone. An unusual gargoyle knocker was on each door. One had a ring in its mouth, the other with a ring through its ears. Toby gasped and beamed, for he recognized the doors from their description in Sarah's stories.

"Jeez, ya really are determined," Hoggle muttered, "but yer not fallin' in an oubliette on _my _watch."

"It's very _rude _to _point_!" the knocker with the ring through its ears said.

Toby laughed as he hopped in front of the door. "Hi."

"What?"

Toby remembered the story and the one knockers' deafness. That must have been the one. He cupped his hands around his mouth to help direct his voice. "I SAID 'HI'!"

"What?"

The other door knocker mumbled something through his ring.

"What?" Toby asked.

"Ah ssmmm mmbm mbabam mm-mm-mm," it responded.

"What?"

"What?" Toby asked.

"What?"

"Mmmm-aaa bmm mmm!"

"What?"

"What?"

"What?"

"OH! SHUT! UP!" Hoggle exploded. "Toby! Just knock on the door so we can get past this idiocy!"

"Okay!" Toby said easily. He skipped up to the knocker with the ring in its mouth, and banged the ring down on the door three times. He chose that door because it was the one Sarah went through.

It opened, and shut behind them when they walked inside.

Toby spun as he looked around, amazed by the change of scenery. It was a forest. It was dark, the air damp, cobwebs and dead vines and glitter all over the place. The tree were very big and overgrown, dripping with vines and moss. They followed a worn path through the middle of it.

Just as Toby was wondering if that was a part in Sarah's story, he jumped when he heard a scream. And another. And another. And then half a dozen creatures with bright orange and red fur, floppy ears, and skinny arms and legs, jumped out of the shadows and down from the trees to surround them.

"Oh no," Hoggle groaned.

"What?" Toby asked. "What are they?"

"Fireys!"

"_When the sun goes down," _they began to sing.

_"When the sun goes down_," some echoed.

_"And the bats are back to bed," _they sang, _"(back to bed)."_

_ "The brothers come 'round/ I get out of my dirtybed/"_

They were dancing as they sung. Hoggle was trying to push them, but they paraded neatly out of his way. Toby was laughing, especially when they made him dance too.

_"I just throw in my hand/ with the chilliest bunch in the land/ they don't look much/ they sure chilly chilly/ they positively glow glow/"_

_"Chilly down with the fire gang/ think small with the fire gang/ bad hap with the fire gang/ when your thing gets wild/ chilly down/" _

Toby didn't get any less discouraged by their creepiness, even as they started throwing away their limbs. Arms flailing over there, legs falling over here, heads being dribbled like basketballs.

One of them spun Toby a few times. He laughed in delight of the flying feeling after he tried standing still.

A blurry sight out of the corner of his eye caught his attention suddenly. A streak of white, a flourish of black. He watched that area curiously.

A Firey grabbed him by the waist and threw him to another. He screamed in surprise, and then giggled.

_"Chilly down with the fire gang/ act tall with the fire gang/ good times, bad food/ when your thing gets wild/ chilly down chilly down/"_

Toby spotted another from on top of the Firey's shoulders. A retreating back. Boots, long legs, and black cape, wild white-blonde hair.

"Jareth?" Toby said. He couldn't hear his own voice over the Firey's singing. "Jareth! Jareth STOP!"

The figure turned for a moment. Toby met Jareth's eyes. He raised a finger to his lips, signaling for Toby to be quiet, and grinning before disappearing in between the trees.

Toby growled and fought his way out of the Firey crowd. Hoggle was preoccupied, trying to explain to the Fireys that his head did not come off like there's did, so he didn't see it when Toby ran after Jareth. Toby clawed at the vines and branches that dangled in front of his face as he caught up with Jareth. Jareth was nothing but a few glimpses of darkness ahead of Toby.

Toby came to a stone wall, high and all covered with leafy dead vines. Jareth was nowhere. He groaned and slumped against the wall, then slid to the ground.

"I'll find you, Jareth," he vowed.

Then something hit his leg. He jerked with surprise and looked down. A peach stared back at him. Toby looked around in confusion, and looked back at the fruit.

He was so hungry. He had complained many times to Hoggle, but Hoggle didn't have anything for him to eat. Hoggle suggested eating a mouse if they found one, and that was _really _gross. Toby loved peaches though. Sarah hated them, he recalled. She'd always look at him really weird whenever he ate one in front of her.

He picked up the peach, and brushed it off a little bit. Then he took a bite, sweet juice splattering out from it.

He felt tired them. Really tired all of a sudden. He leaned his head back against the wall and raised the peach to his lips for another bite. Instead, his hand went limp and the peach rolled out of it. He felt his eyes closing, and tried hard to keep them open.

Then Jareth was standing above him, smiling.

Toby shut him eyes. Before falling asleep, the last thing he heard was Jareth's quiet voice.

"Good night, sweet prince."

* * *

><p>I got a head full of faces,<br>a heart full of pain,  
>I got some bad ideas<br>feeding my brain  
>I got a night full of promise,<br>a city full of prey,  
>Looks everything is going my way<br>I got a eye for the beauties,  
>a mouth full of charm,<br>I got a tongue dripping poison tattooed on my arm

-Alice Cooper, "I'm Hungry"

* * *

><p><strong>Well, now Jareth has BOTH of them stuck in dreams. Yes, indeed, everything is going his way. For this chapter at least.<strong>

**You think Toby can still make it to the castle in time?**

Hey, if you guys have any ideas you want me to put into Sarah's nightmares, feel free to let me know.

**Thank you so much for reading!**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	7. The Nightmare Returns

**You all are seriously amazing! I love the reviews! can you believe this is almost over? Like...3-4 more chapters. **

**I want to extend a special thanks to Serena24, CherryWillow19, childishmistake, mangamichelle12, Kaytori, phantomess300, and WaitingForAKiss for their suggestions in Sarah's/Toby's nightmares. They were all awesome! Thank you for suggesting them, I'm trying to do everything I can to include everyone's ideas and doing my best to write them how you may have envisioned them. so i really hope you guys enjoy this chapter and the next one; the nightmares continue! ! !**

**ENJOY! **

_This is familiar_.

Of course it was familiar. It was unforgettable. It was _unimaginable_.

It was her nightmare.

Sarah was in the middle of a ballroom—no, _The _Ballroom. The very same. She was caught in the middle of a masquerade. But it was not quite what she remembered. This was uglier.

No human faces existed, only goblin faces. And Sarah was not entirely sure that they were masks. She found that she couldn't speak, so to get the attention of the people around her, she tried to make eye contact with them. Every pair of eyes that met hers was glowing orange and red. The people were all tall, and incredibly skinny. Their clothing—washed out colors that tried desperately to be bright, but was cloaked by something dark in the air—hung off them awkwardly, because even the skinniest of waists on the dresses were loose on the women. Skeletons—the lot of them. Long, skeleton fingers with claws. Skeletons, but with skin, skin that was green or gray or brown with scars and warts. Once beautiful creatures being transformed into goblins.

The atmosphere was so thick with malice. Yet, the masqueraders were joyous. A little grosser than joyous. They were a little too intimate. Their laughing was obnoxious. Some danced, and their dancing was more like uncoordinated stumbling and turning and wild gestures, chests touching instead of proper arms-length-apart dancing, practically draping themselves over each other. Some of them were just kissing fervently, tongues running over each other's body, women on women, men under women's skirts, hands touching vulgarly.

Sarah thought her dream was a haunting nightmare. Not even close to her dream being turned into an actually nightmare.

She had caught her reflection in a mirror she passed by, and she was the only familiar thing. Her hair was neatly curled and done up with glitter and ribbons, and she was in a white dress. Not quite the one she remembered. This one was less poofy and more elegant, slimmer, with elaborate white beading and ribbons falling as sleeves. A beautiful dress, really. She was, then, a pure rose in the middle of a garden of dying ivy. Creeping, twisting ivy.

Music was playing. It sounded evil. The darkest, screeching violin music she had ever heard.

Making her way cautiously through the crowd, not sure what to do, she suddenly saw a flash of blonde hair. A figure, with fair skin instead of goblin skin. And when he turned—he—a sparkle of blue eyes flashed into Sarah's.

In the next second, he was swallowed by a sea of people.

"Toby!" Sarah shouted. She could hardly hear her own voice. She sounded like she was trying to talk underwater, and her voice was just a loud ringing through the air. It sounded exactly like the high-pitched ringing one might hear in their ear.

But what was _Toby _doing in her dre—in her nightmare? Did her mind imagine him? Or did Jareth put him there? (Where was Jareth?) And was that Toby the real Toby, or her imagination, if she was imagining him? An illusion from Jareth, meant to trick her? (Where _was_ Jareth?)

Sarah had to find Toby. An overwhelming need to find him in the crowd came over her. She went as far as shoving people out of her way in her panic, trying to search for him. Sometimes she caught glimpses of his hair, or spotted his shadow, but she never got to him. She was near-tears in fear. Because, what if it was the real Toby? He must have been terrified!

But she just couldn't get to him!

It became so frustrating that she could no longer contain the bubble of anger rising in her chest. She literally saw red. And she snapped.

"GET THE _FUCK_ OUT OF MY WAY!"

The majority of the people around her froze. Apparently they heard her better than she heard herself, because all she heard was a silver bell being struck with unnecessary force. They slowly turned their demonically glowing eyes on her, glaring. She faltered, then glared back with outstanding ferocity. Keeping their dirty looks on her, they made a path.

"Well, thanks a fucking lot," she said, words dripping in sarcasm.

She looked past them, down the path. And smiled. Blonde hair. _Ah, there he is_. She started towards him.

And she stopped.

Her heart thudded heavy, her breathing came a little faster….

She hadn't found Toby.

Jareth lowered his goblin mask—_Devil's mask_—and his icy blue eyes burned into Sarah's. A surge of ice cold fear shot straight through her veins. He smiled, a cruel smile that revealed his fangs and all his malice. Sarah shivered.

He was another perfection in the ballroom. The only beside her, and Toby if he was still around. His outfit looked like the one he wore last time, except it was white instead of blue. His hair even had silver streaks.

He beckoned to her.

And she moved towards him without thinking about it. She moved on her own, horrified to discover that she couldn't do anything about it.

No! NO, she did NOT want to dance with him! But she was anyway.

His eyes gleamed hungrily as he looked down at her, twisting them in a neat circle. His dancing was exceptional, with all the grace that she remembered from the last time, putting to shame the rest of the masqueraders. Not that that made dancing with him better, but she couldn't find the will to pull away from him. She then realized that she was a puppet on his strings. Nothing more.

"You're a lovely dancer, Sarah."

She gasped, and would have stumbled if Jareth didn't prevent it. _His voice... _Not the voice she remembered at all. Of course it was the same accented, crisp, seductive voice he had, but it was something else when he spoke this time. White hot pain shot throw her mind like an arrow, taking her breath away momentarily. His voice was _pain _to her, each word scraping sharply against the inside of her skull.

He smiled mockingly. "Speechless, I see. Aren't you enjoying the ball?"

She gritted her teeth, her eyes shut tightly. "Stop it," she managed to choke out.

"Stop what, precious Sarah?" He spun her under him arm. "Stop dancing? I always thought this was what you wanted. You fantasize about it perpetually. Don't you want to be"—he pulled her against his chest, resting his forehead against hers—"_close_ to me, Sarah?"

"Stop _talking_," she moaned.

He laughed, bringing an even sharper pain to split her skull. She clenched her teeth, fighting not to cry out.

"Oh dear," he murmured, "you don't look happy. How about a smile? Toby's watching, you know? Won't you smile for him?"

Her eyes widened in horror. "You brought Toby here? No! How could you?"

Jareth shrugged. "Simply, with nothing but a little peach. It's an old trick, but it keeps working." He narrowed his eyes at her. "You never did warn little Toby not to eat the Labyrinth's fruit, did you? You left that part out of your story. Why, Sarah?"

She kept silent, biting her lip.

"_Sarah? _Is it because you didn't want him to know that you danced with the vile Goblin King? Because you didn't want him to know that, somewhere in the story, you started falling for the villain?" He laughed again; a wicked cackle that should have shattered all the glass around. "It _is _that, isn't it? Well, you couldn't very well have that in your story. How that would have confused poor Toby. The heroine is supposed to be against the villain, not be attracted to the villain."

"Stop it!" she exclaimed. "Stop it! This isn't fair! You weren't supposed to bring Toby into this. This is between me and you."

Jareth raised an eyebrow. "Hmmm... Imagine it, that without Toby, we never would have met." He spun them quickly around, grinning excitedly. "Oh look! There's Toby now, over there. He's looking this way. You wouldn't want him to see you so distressed. Smile."

There was a sudden tugging at the corners of Sarah's mouth. Before she realized it, she was smiling up at Jareth. At least her mouth looked happy, because her eyes were burning with hate.

"_Bastard_," she hissed. "You rotten son of a bitch. You better not do _anything _to Toby."

"Or else...what? Ah, Sarah..." Jareth's eyes glittered with wicked amusement. "_Sarah_, you have no power of me."

_You have no power over me_. These words burned more than anything in her mind. Her vision blackened from the agony, the words flashing in red blood behind her eyelids. She felt so sick from the pain, and wished she would faint—anything to block out the pain of his words.

"Oh dear, that hurt you to hear, didn't it?" he asked. "Now you can imagine how I felt to hear them."

She forced herself to look at him. His face was perfectly blank, perhaps expectant. He abruptly turned her around, and his arms trapped her back against him. They were facing a mirror. His eyes met hers in it.

"Look, Sarah," he whispered. "You're so beautiful, and so strong-willed. But you have no power over me." His silk-clad hands slowly slid down her arms. "Can you feel me taking over you, Sarah? Sarah, my precious, my princess... Sarah, my Queen. Can you feel how helpless you are in my embrace? You're practically my slave. That's because, in just four hours and twenty-eight minutes, you'll be mine. See that clock on the wall?"

Sarah reluctantly looked over to see the intricate, golden thirteen-hour clock hanging on the wall. It was the same clock as last time.

"That clock," Jareth said, "was the clock that struck the hour last time we danced, and ruined my chances of keeping you here. This time, _this _time, precious Sarah, I've taken the liberty of removing all the chairs from the ballroom. This time you can't escape. Look, Sarah!"

She had looked down. now she brought her gaze back to the mirror, and saw that Jareth was no longer standing behind her. She gasped, and looked at the clock. She couldn't read the numbers, because the clock's face had turned into Jareth's.

_Black eyes? He doesn't have black eyes_.

They weren't Jareth's eyes. They were the eyes of a snake. It was a snake's head, not Jareth. The snakes eyes were black, soulless...endless. She was terrified by the nothingness she saw in them.

The snake opened its mouth, and hissed, two large fangs dripping venom. The same nothingness was inside it, and soon that was all Sarah saw because the snake was eating her.

She was completely swallowed by the darkness.

* * *

><p>Toby had never been to a grown-up party before. His parents always put him to sleep before they went to their parties, so he never went. He was very curious by the party he found himself in the middle of. Everyone looked strange—not like humans.<p>

He had seen Sarah a couple times, but he couldn't get to her through the crowds. The people were all so tall, and he was so small.

Annoyed that he couldn't find Sarah, he decided to ask someone for help. He couldn't find Hoggle either, so he knew he would have to ask someone around. He pulled lightly on the nearest skirt. A lady with brown skin, orange eyes, and a very long, pointed nose leaned over to look at him.

He smiled at her unsurely. "Um...Hi. Sorry, but I'm looking for my sister. Can you help me find her? I saw her before..."

"Your sister?" the woman exclaimed. She had a high, annoying voice. "You're looking for your sister?" She looked away. "Hey, Roul! This kid's looking for his sister!"

A man dancing with another woman looked over. He had red eyes and ugly, sharp teeth. "Sister? Kid?" He and his dancing partner quickly went over to Toby. "I don't know any sister."

"Her name is Sarah."

"Oh, that's interesting," the first woman said. "My name is Cat. And what's your name?"

"Toby. Can you help me?"

"Hey, kid!" The other woman leaned over to him, grinning. Her grin almost reached her pointed ears—like dog ears. "You wanna see a card trick? I can do a really nice card trick?"

Toby hesitated. "Um...o-okay."

She cackled. "Okay, okay! Here, here, you hold...you hold this card. Okay? You look at it, and you just remember what card it is. Okay? Okay? You got it?"

Toby nodded, so the woman snatched back the card.

"Okay! Okay!" She laughed. "And...okay, we don't need these cards." She threw the rest of the deck of cards up into the air, letting them rain down around them. "We didn't need any of those card. We just need this card. You see? You see? Now watch."

She held the card between two fingers, then turned it over. It disappeared. As scary as the woman was, it was a pretty cool trick.

"Wow," Toby began, "that was—"

"Shhh shhh shhh!" the woman said quickly. "Wait! Wait! Don't you want your card back? If you can remember the card. I told you to! I told you to! I told you! Shhh! Look."

Roul, next to her, started coughing. He bent over and coughed into his hand. He sounded like he was choking. Toby began to panic. The woman hit him on the back of the head, really hard. He gagged again, and pulled a card out of his mouth. Toby grimaced.

The woman laughed and took the card. "You see, kid? You see? You see? Wasn't that nice like I said? Here, here, here, it's _your _card. You remember it, don't you? Here, have it!"

The card that she shoved in Toby's face was wet. It looked like it was covered in goo. Toby did _not _want it back. He slapped his hands over his mouth and shook his head wildly.

The woman frowned. "No? No? You don't remember? Oh—Oh, what a shame. Fine then, fine! He can have it back!" She turned and shoved the card back into Roul's mouth, and he promptly gagged once and swallowed it.

He glared at her. "Woman—that didn't taste good the _first _time!"

She laughed gleefully.

"I have something much better," Cat told Toby. "Look here, kid." She held up a wooden box, carved with cool designs and flowers and ribbons on the corners of it. She prepared to open it.

It looked a lot nicer than the other woman's card trick, but Toby had to stop her. "No, no! I don't want to see it! I just want to find my sister."

The three looked at each other and groaned, throwing up their hands.

"Well, if that's _all _you wanted," Cat said.

"You should have just said so to begin with!" Roul said.

Toby looked up at them in confusion. "But I...I _did _say so. I _know _I did."

"Kid, you never said any such thing," Cat said gently, smiling while patting Toby on the cheek. She had long fingers, and long, black nails.

Toby drew back from her.

"Look here," Roul said, putting a hand on Toby's back and directing him a certain way. "There's your sister. That's who you're looking for, right?"

Toby raised an eyebrow, and shook his head. "No. My sister isn't a bird."

The other woman looked at Roul, scowling. She hit him in the back of the head, really hard. "You idiot! His sister isn't a bird!"

"Look, kid," Cat said, turning Toby around. "_There's _your sister? That is her, right?"

It was her. But Toby was still confused. Sarah looked so pretty, wearing a dress and everything. She never wore dresses. She never danced with anyone besides Toby either. But she was wearing a dress _and _dancing with _Jareth_.

Toby didn't understand. Why would she be dancing with Jareth? Jareth was EVIL! Sarah told him so! Had they made up with each other? Did that mean Jareth was still evil?

But Sarah was smiling. She looked happy with him. They _must _have made up.

They danced away from Toby's sight.

Toby turned to Cat. "Sarah's with Jareth," he said. "I...I don't know what to do. I was supposed to rescue her, but...I don't think she needs rescuing anymore."

"Rescuing from what?" Cat asked.

"From Jareth."

She gave him a puzzled look. "Wait...but...she's already _with _Jareth."

"I know!" Toby was frustrated that everyone else was confused too.

"Well," Roul cut in, "if you were to rescue your sister from Jareth, I think _now _would be the time to do so."

The other woman opened her eyes wide in terror, and shook her head. "No, no, no, no! It's not time yet! Not yet! Not yet! Time will come—will come, time will. You'll see! You'll see! But no, not now."

"There's _no _time!" Toby cried. "She doesn't _want _to be rescued."

"You know, kid," Roul said, "women _never _know what they want."

Both women, on either side of him, turned to him and whacked him in the back of the head, really _hard_. He pouted and rubbed his head.

"Does that mean I should still try to rescue her?" Toby asked, not sure if he understood correctly.

"I'd say yes," Roul said, and then covered his head quickly, expecting another hit.

"But I don't even know where she is now," Toby said.

Cat hummed while she thought. "Where do you think she would be?"

Toby shrugged. "Uhh...I don't know...but I _just _saw her... Over _there_. You were standing _right next to me_."

Cat blinked. "Where do you think she would be?"

Toby sighed. "She's supposed to be at Jareth's castle."

"The Castle Beyond the Goblin City?" Roul asked.

Toby nodded. "I need to get there to save her."

"Then what are you doing here?" Cat shouted. "Sheesh! You better get going!"

Roul rubbed his chin, thinking. "Hey, aren't we supposed to be stopping him from getting to the Castle?"

The other woman nodded quickly, and didn't stop nodding.

Cat shrugged. "I don't know. This is just a dream anyway, isn't it?"

"_Nightmare_," the other woman corrected in a whisper, leaning foward.

"Nightmare," Cat amended, waving her hand around. "Whatever. We've been dancing around here for so long, I forget what we're supposed to be doing."

"Well, that's because we're supposed to forget things here," Roul said. "Right?"

"I don't remember," Cat said.

Toby decided to speak up. "How do I get to Jareth's castle? I don't have a lot of time..."

Cat was silent for a minute. "Sheesh...there's _a lot _I don't remember."

They shrugged altogether.

"Sorry, kid," Roul said, "you're on your own."

The other woman suddenly shrieked, making Toby jump. She was shaking. "Where's my cards? Where's my cards? I have more tricks. You want to see tricks, don't you? Don't you? Don't you? You have time—it's not your _time _yet. We're supposed to stop you! Don't leave us! Don't leave! Don't leave! Let me keep you!" She laughed, her hands over her mouth. "I want to keep you! I have more card tricks!"

Toby shook his head, afraid. "You can't keep me! I want to leave, _now_!"

"You CAN'T!" she screamed. "It's not your TIME!"

Toby started to run away from her, glancing back to see Cat and Roul restraining her. A clock chimed. Toby paused to look around for it, finding the gold clock hanging up on the wall. There were thirteen numbers on the clock—either the clock was made wrong or his teacher is _wrong_ and shouldn't be trying to teach people about time.

Toby silently wished he had a baseball bat. Even the ball would have worked. Right then, he _hated _that clock. He wanted everyone to stop talking about time.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to see Cat, holding out her wooden box. She nodded encouragingly at Toby. He undid the lock and opened the box, and pulled out a crowbar.

"I told you it would be better than card tricks," she said.

Toby offered her a small smile before turning to the clock, holding the crowbar like a baseball bat. It chimed again, and Toby hit it with as much force as he could. The glass crystals shattered, and the gold bent. He hit it again, and everything around them shattered. The entire room shattered. And he was falling through the shards.

* * *

><p>I'm a little tired and feeling hazy<br>I just need to rest my eyes  
>But I won't go to sleep because it's crazy<br>What happens to me in the night  
>Coz when I go too deep into my slumber<br>Ugly faces  
>Awful places<br>I don't want to go...  
>No...<p>

-Alice Cooper, "The Nightmare Returns"

* * *

><p><strong>I actually think my fav character in this is that crazy bitch with the cards. Don't ya just wanna hang out with her all the time?<strong>

**THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

**I'm still open for nightmare suggestions. (lol, not that I can't make up my own ideas, just to let you guys know, i just thought it might be fun to incorperate ideas from the fans of the story. so don't be shy!)**


	8. Is It My Body

**Wow! so many reviews! thank you guys so much; keep on reading and reviewing! cuz I pretty much crave your reviews like oxygen.**

**special thanks again to all of you who threw out some ideas for nightmares. i think you'll enjoy this!**

Sarah was in a dungeon. It was dark, she could hardly see anything. There was a lot of space, but she was the only one there, save for a decomposing prisoner still wrapped in chains in the corner. Sarah's hands were raised about her head, chained to the wall. She sat on the cold floor and pulled at the chains, but they were going to soon cut into her skin. Obviously, she wasn't going anywhere.

She started to scream for help. Help from anyone. She was fighting tears.

"I'd advise you to shut up."

Sarah started at the sound of Jareth's icy voice and looked up. He was slowly pacing a line in front of her, rhythmically tapping the end of his riding crop against his boot. He was wearing full Goblin King regalia, looking exactly who he did when she first met him, black armor and a tattered cloak. His I-mean-business outfit, Sarah thought.

"No one will hear you," he continued. "And if they do, it's not as if anyone would actually come to your aid."

Sarah couldn't find any words to respond.

He paused in front of her. "'Well...isn't this a sight." He grinned, the only illumination in the darkness. His voice was menacing.

"What are you doing do me?" she whispered brokenly.

He raised in eyebrows and laid a hand over his chest. "I? Sarah, I haven't done a thing to you. Yet. You've done all this to yourself."

She whimpered and dropped her head. "Why am I _here_?"

He slowly crouched down in front of her. "Because, Sarah—" he grabbed her face and snapped her head back up, hissing in her ear, "You're as _crazy _as I am!"

She flinched, trying to scramble back from him. But she was against the wall already. There was positively no where she could go.

"I'm _not _crazy," she insisted.

He raised an amused eyebrow. "Oh yes you are, Sarah. Would a sane person wish their poor little brother away to the King of the Goblins? What about your incessant delusion that you're a precocious heroine with the ability to defeat any villain?"

"I defeated _you_!" she rebuked.

He tsked in disappointment. "No you didn't, _princess_. I'm not real. I'm just a story; a fairytale." He narrowed his eyes. "You never ran any Labyrinth. You're friends don't exist; that dwarf, that fox... They're all figments of your imagination. You made up the whole thing from your story. You were so taken with it that you really thought you were the princess, that the Goblin King fell in love with you, that you defeated him and recued your baby brother. Such a _sad_ story, precious... A pitiful tale..."

She shook her head, eyes wide. "No. No, you're wrong. It was real."

"What proof do you have? You know no one would ever believe you; that's why you never told anyone. It sounded crazy even to you."

"Of course it sounded crazy," she cried. "It's _impossible_! But it happened."

He laughed derisively. "Dear me...you grow madder by the minute."

Sarah tried to kick him, but he stood and stepped back. "Stop it! I'm not mad!"

He fingered the length of his riding cop. "Well, well—no need to shout."

"Unchain me, Goblin King" she ordered.

"Consequences, dear Sarah," he reminded her. "How does it feel to be in my position?"

She gasped, realizing it for the first time. She was chained up in a dungeon, just like Jareth once was. _His scars_, she remembered, looking at his gloved hands. And he was trying to convince her that she was crazy, as crazy as he went in his cell. _The whip_. She eyed his crop fearfully, recalling how badly he was beaten by the cell guard.

He smirked and got back down on one knee, raising the crop like he knew exactly what she was thinking. He stroked the leather lightly down the side of her face. She turned her face as far away from him as she could.

_"Would it be too much to ask," _he started to quietly sing, _"if you would join me for a dance? The mood is fine, the stars do shine, a moon so bright, bathed in white..._ But, Sarah...you can't dance with me. I can see you're a little tied up at the moment."

Tears threatened to spill over. "I'm _sorry _about what happened to you. But _please_," she begged, "_please _don't do this to me."

"_Give love a chance, join me for dance... _Sarah, this is a dream, you remember. Or nightmare, depending on your take of things. Regardless, this is my job."

She risked a glance at him, curious.

"I'm meant to haunt your dreams, meant to create nightmares in your mind. You're the only one who ever defeated me—that warrants some revenge. I've held back...but you invited me in. This is _all your doing_, my princess. Every action"—he lightly tapped the riding crop on the top of her thigh—"requires a consequence."

She squeezed her eyes shut. _Wake up, wake up, wake up_...

Sarah's eyes snapped back open as she jolted awake. She was staring up at a high ceiling, a dark ceiling. The room was dark, lit with a few candles. The softness of a bed laid underneath her.

She sighed, momentarily content. At least she was at of the dungeon. But then...where _was _she?

She tried to get up, and found that her hands were still chained above her head. This time, her ankles were also restrained. She lifted her head as far as she could to look down at herself. She was wearing nothing but a black skirt and a leather corset. "Oh _no_," she groaned. _Am I even still asleep?_

"Oh _yesss_, precious."

The bed dipped to her left, and Jareth was sitting there. He was wearing his boots, black leather pants, and a black shirt completely open. No gloves. That sickened her. Her tied down and Jareth gloveless was bad foreboding. His pendant laid in the middle of his chest, as always. The candlelight gave his grin an ugly gleam to it, but warmed the color of his skin and cast defining shadows on his abdomen and chest.

"Hi." He slowly crawled over her body until his face was above hers. The pendant had sharp edges; it poked at her breasts as it laid on her cleavage. "Welcome to my bedroom, Sarah."

"I don't remember getting the invitation."

He raised an eyebrow. "On the contrary, I've extended an invitation several times, and you've refused all."

"If I never accepted, why am I here?" she demanded.

He put his lips just above hers, brushing hers as he spoke softly. "I'm not sure, honestly. This is your nightmare, and my dream. I don't know which one I was favoring when I brought you here."

She closed her eyes, waiting for him to kiss her. He never did. He laughed and pulled away.

"But this is also your fantasy, isn't it, Sarah?" His bare hand came to rest on her thigh, starting to slip up her skirt. She gasped and opened her eyes. "Isn't it, Sarah?"

"No." But it was a lie. It was a very clear lie. She had had dreams of a similar nature about her and Jareth. Not that she would ever admit so out loud, no matter how he pushed her to.

He laughed again. "Sarah..." He started to shower her neck with kisses. "You want this—me—Sarah. You _need _me."

"Like hell," she hissed. But it was hard to be angry when she was feeling _so good_...

"Still the stubborn child." His kissing became harsh in a certain sensitive spot, to the point where it became uncomfortable. Then he _bit _her.

Sarah cried out, her heart racing in her chest.

"Hush, princess."

"Wh-what was that...?"

He lightly ran his finger over the sore spot; cool compared to her hot skin. "Well, that might bruise."

"Stop!" she cried, trying to break away from her chains. "This is crossing the line, Goblin King. You hate me and would give up a limb any day to see me suffer into eternity. I get it. I'm suffering, I'm scared, and you've made your point thoroughly enough."

"I don't think I have, Sarah."

"Yes! You have! Now let me wake up!"

He began to casually undo the black lace in the front of her corset. "I really don't think I have, Sarah. You _still _don't understand that _you are mine_. You refuse to realize it. You refuse to even speak my name." The corset was unlaced all the way to the bottom, practically off her body. "Don't think I haven't taken note of that, dear Sarah. You've been very careful about it. Sometimes you begin to say my name, and then skip it altogether. But it's always 'Goblin King', 'bastard', or 'you son of a bitch'."

"I—_ow!_"

Jareth had slapped her thigh. "Shush. I don't want to hear it. You only said my name once, after you ate the apple, and you weren't in the right state of mind. It doesn't count. But it does mean that you think of me by my name." He sighed. "You know, Sarah, not many know my name. The goblins, of course, know it, as do the people of the Labyrinth, because they are my subjects. But I should have throttled that dwarf for telling you my name. The only people who know my name are the people who belong to me." He smirked, his hand traveling up her stomach, burning her, forcing the corset apart. "I figured later that it was fine, because I intended on making you mine. As well as your brother."

Sarah gasped in horror. "No. You told me Toby could leave freely!"

"Given up on him then?" He flourished a hand and pulled a crystal out of the air. "See? Look. Toby draws very near to the castle. He broke out of his dream. Literally. Like sister, like brother; you both have this compulsion to destroy things. Whether he makes it in time or not, I'll offer him something he can't refuse."

"He won't fall for any of your tricks," she said. "He's smarter than that."

With a wicked gleam in his eyes, he bared her stomach and chest, removing the corset from under her body and tossing it aside. She bit her lip, willing herself not to cry.

"He will," Jareth replied smugly. "He'll be all too eager to. His determination to have you back will blind him to any trickery." He sat back, his hands slowly moving up the curves of her waist. "But enough about Toby. He's for a different time. Nothing matters but the two of us when I have you chained to my bed, allowed to have my way with you."

"There is no 'us', and there never will be." She let her head fall to the side as she closed her eyes. She couldn't watch as Jareth fondled her body. But it still felt amazing, she thought treacherously. Yes, she had fantasized it, but she couldn't really want it. And not under this condition.

"What a pity."

His hands lightly rubbed over her breasts and retreated back down the length of her curves. She moaned softly.

"That's right, precious," he purred.

He pinched her nipple, hard enough to make her gasp in pain. Her eyes snapped open and immediately met his as he turned her face to his. He roughly kissed her lips, and she responded with equal eagerness. The kiss left her burning, with most of the heat growing from her core. His lips left hers too quickly, but his fingers found their way down to her entrance.

"No, no, please," she weakly protested. _I can't do this_. _Not with everything...think of Toby...he...he stole my brother! Oh God! _She moaned and writhed under him, thoughts muddled. Only one thing in her mind stood out, and that was how amazingly alive her senses were.

"You're wet, Sarah," he said. "_I _did that to you. And there proves my point. _You need me_." He nipped at her ear, sharp teeth grazing. She was shaking from the tension as his fingers teased her. "Only I have the power to grant you release. You know your right words."

"Fuck you," she said through clenched teeth.

He quirked an eyebrow in surprise. "A little more vulgar than I expected, but I suppose that will do."

He plunged a finger into her.

She screamed and sat up. She was in the middle of a forest, sitting in a patch of tall grass. It was night, very dark, and there was a breeze. She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them protectively, and began sobbing.

"Why the tears, precious?"

Jareth wasn't anywhere to be seen, but his voice was everywhere at once. Above her, below her, carried by the wind, hissing through the trees, swirling around her. His voice was _in her mind_.

"No, Sarah," he said, "in _our _mind."

She looked up, mouth gaping open. "Did you just read my mind?"

"_Our _mind," he repeated. "I'm _in _your mind; I've already become part of your mind. Therefore, this is the doing of _our _minds, merging as one. There was no secrets here, I know everything you think."

"That's—"

"—not fair," he finished. "Isn't the saying, 'All's fair in love and war'? Since we have a lovely combination of both love and war between us, I'd say it couldn't be more fair." He paused. "Are you going to tell me why you're crying? Or do _I _have to tell _you _why?"

"I don't understand," she said, her voice filled with weary despair. "This is supposed to be a dream, but it feels so real. Why is it like that?"

"I'll help you understand then. _What_," he asked, "_is _a dream?"

"A dream isn't real." It was an obvious answer.

He tsked in disappointment. "What a poor way to judge reality from dreams. Dreams are _illusions_, dear Sarah, and are very powerful ones at that. Have you ever dreamt a night and not believed that every moment was real?"

"It feels _too _real," she said.

"A powerful illusion. Nothing more." A laugh pierced the night."And I could tell how real everything seemed for you, precious."

_ Would it be too much to ask if you would join me for a dance? The mood is fine, the stars do shine, a moon so bright, bathed in white, a land so green, a sky serene..._

"You're so stubborn, Sarah," Jareth sighed. "The fact that I actually have to go inside your mind to find out the truth, that you can't just confess your fantasies of me. You dream, Sarah... Why do you prefer dreams to reality?"

"It's safer to dream," she answered.

"Perhaps. If only you were dealing with someone else. I am the King of Dreams. With me, it is _dare _to _dream_. I take dreams and twist them until they are thoroughly reality. So why not give love a chance, and join me for a dance? An eternal dance, Sarah. Is that not appealing?"

"Not at all."

"Then what is it you want?" he asked, genuine intrigue leaking into his voice.

"For you to burn in hell!" she shouted furiously up at the trees.

There was a moment of utter silence, and then lightly branched out across the sky from one brilliant second, accompanied by an ear-shattering crack of thunder.

"Is that so?" He was seething. "Well, it's a good thing you have no power over me."

Sarah's hands clenched into fists. She wiped the tears from her face and stood up. "Just as you have no power over me!"

Lightning struck the ground, incredibly close to her in relativity to lightning strikes. She flinched at the thunder.

"You have no power over me!" she screamed. "You're in _my _mind, which means _I _control this."

"_I _created all this," Jareth rebuked, as a light show went on in the sky. "Don't you think you would have transposed your previous dreams if _you_ had the _power_? Wouldn't you have broken out of your chains?"

"I'm learning as I go along."

"No one really ever learns from their mistakes," he said. "Between the two of us, we should know very well. Here we are; here is history repeating itself."

"This is _a lot _different than last time, Goblin King," she disagreed.

"It is the same. Nothing has changed."

"_Everything _has! The situation, feelings—"

"Ha!" he scoffed. "That's exactly what I meant. You are so very wrong, Sarah. Feelings have not changed at all. You are still a little girl in my shadow. You fear me, you are intimidated, you are attracted to me, but you are still spirited, defiant... The only change would be that these feelings grow stronger. As for the situation, it may seem different, but the premise is there. Not that an occasional mind-fuck ever did anyone much harm."

She didn't reply at first, because what he said about feelings was true. That was exactly how it was for her, and she wasn't surprised that he knew. But what angered her was that she knew nothing about him.

"And what about you?" she asked.

Thunder rumbled lowly. "What _about _me?"

"How do _you _feel this time, in comparison to last?"

"The same," he hissed. "I _hate_ you. And I hate you because you have _all _the power over me. And I love you."

His voice came from one location: the tree directly in front of her. She couldn't see him until he leapt down, landing neatly in a crouch. He straightened up, electric blue eyes burning into hers.

"But that doesn't matter, Sarah. You want nothing to do with me. You want me to burn in hell. You would never take a chance and dance with me. You're too afraid that you would enjoy it."

Lightening struck the tree above her, bathing everything in blinding white, setting blazing fire to the tree. A large branch bent with protesting creaking, snapped, and fell straight down onto Sarah.

Her eyes flew open.

* * *

><p>What does it take<br>to get inside of your mind  
>Give me a break<br>and take a chance for the very first time  
>You better tell me<br>Tell me  
>It's really up to you<br>Have you got the time to find out who I really am

-Alice Cooper, "Is It My Body"

* * *

><p><strong>And there you have your M rating.<strong>

**I'm feeling a little nervous about this chapter; I don't know why. What did you guys think? Was it okay?**

**OMG OMG OMG I'M GOING TO GO SEE ALICE COOPER AT JONES BEACH TOMORROW! ! ! I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT! IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME!**

**sorry, I just _really _wanted to tell everyone. Lol. **

**please review!**


	9. AN

Fret not.

I know an Author's Note in the middle of a story usually means the story will be delayed or stopped or something like that. That is not this. This is nothing bad at all.

But this has a point, I promise. It ties in with this story.

So... Yesterday, I went to go see Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden in concert. Alice was not the headline act, but he played a good hour to Iron Maiden's two hours. I love them both, but I thought Alice's performance was much better.

I want to emphasize just how much the Villain of RockN'Roll really is like Jareth the Goblin King.

First: the looks.

The outrageous and never-to-be-seen-without eye makeup—which, by the way, I was the only one at that concert of at least 20,000 people wearing eye makeup like Alice; I was very disappointed in my fellow Sick Things—the black, the boots, the tight pants, and—holy hell—the carrying around of a riding crop/cane AND a snake. Their first overall appearances are too similar.

Second: the personalities.

Here's the real reason I favored Alice's performance over Iron Maiden.

Maiden was great! They really impressed me. But, I simply can't be won over by special effects. The lights were amazing—if not blinding—as was the fire and animatronics. They lacked theatrics, which Alice Cooper had much of.

After the concert, my brother-in-law had pointed out how old the singer of Maiden is, and he was able to do all that running around on stage and jumping and whatnot. Well, Alice Cooper is 65 years old. It's true that he didn't do a lot of running and jumping, but _he didn't have to_. Anyway, since he wasn't the main act, he only had a small setup in the front of the stage. If he had all the room Maiden did and was able to use the lights like they did, I'm certain he could have outdone Maiden. Sure that it's very good how old Maiden is and how he keeps in such great shape, but anyone can simply run around the stage and jump over the speakers. What Alice does is so much more.

With their music, I much prefer Alice. When I hear Iron Maiden songs, I feel like they are simply the narrators, telling us stories exceptionally amazing. But when Alice sings, when he performs, he really puts himself into the story he's telling. And of course, he's always the villain. And _that _is so much more enthralling.

In comparison with Jareth, Alice acted almost identically. I felt like I could see the Goblin King down there on the stage, stalking back and forth like Alice's shadow.

From the moment Alice walked on stage, he had me entranced with his every move. He had slightly different outfits for every song—like Jareth, Alice really does dress to impress. He had a different cane/crop/crutch in his hand for every song. Like I said, there was no need for him to run around. His determined walk—his arrogant strut—was more than enough. Watching him was much like how I imagine standing in front of the Goblin King would be. You were intimidate by his stature, spellbound by his every aspect, completely willing to do whatever he says because he simply commanded obedience without speaking. (Alice: "Raise your hands if you're poison!" All hands shot into the air, most of them wearing Iron Maiden shirts rather than Alice Cooper shirts.) Alice really was the villain of the stage, while the Goblin King is the villainous King of the Labyrinth, both of who we love dearly because we just can't help it.

To me, they seemed one in the same, Alice and Jareth. Alice could have very well been the Goblin King in another life. He was the villain King on stage, pacing the floor while twirling around his cane, or—one of my favorite actions to describe Jareth as doing—rhythmically tapping his cane against his boot. While Iron Maiden had huge animatronics, the live boa constrictor that Alice wrapped around his neck and arms was more impressive. While Alice did that and sung "No More Mr. Nice Guy", I had flash images of Jareth delivering the intense but cheeky line, "Sarah...don't defy me," and turning a crystal into a snake. _Too similar._

It's no wonder I could always picture David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King dancing around and singing Alice Cooper songs. There came the idea for this particular fanfiction. Though Alice didn't sing "Why Trust You", his opening song _was _"The Black Widow". I can't even say how happy that made me, since it's my favorite song _and _the song that I associate Jareth with the most. "The unholiest of kings..." _I'll bet. _"Our minds will be his toys..." _I think he's proven that. _Jareth: "Love me, yes, we love me." Obedient goblins: "Love him, yes, we love him." "He sits upon his throne/and picks at all the bones/ of his husbands/and his wives he's devoured" _I think we can all picture Jareth lounging in his throne, staring into a crystal and humoring himself with thoughts of all the people he's played his wicked tricks on._

You get the picture, I'm sure.

It was easy to form this story from Alice Cooper songs. He's a great inspiration to me. I love him eternally. He comes similar to others, but there really is none like him.

ALICE COOPER FOREVER! ! ! !

He gets decapitated in a guillotine at every show and always comes back to play. It just shows that he'll live on forever. He'll never die.

If you guys see tickets selling for an Alice Cooper show in your area, DO NOT DELAY! Go see Alice immediately. I promise you it's worth it.

On another note, only 3 chapters left to this story. Getting excited? Will Toby make it or not?

Thank you for listening.

-KAM


	10. It's Much Too Late

Toby was sitting somewhere cold and dark. He couldn't see anything. He was huddled on the floor, against the wall, and didn't move. He didn't know where anyone was. Hoggle was gone. But, his mom always told him that if he got lost to stay where he was and someone would find him. It was taking too long.

Besides, _he _was supposed to be looking for someone. And he didn't have a lot of time left.

Suddenly, the room was alight with the flickering glow of candles. The room was small, no doors or windows, and there was another man in the room. He was a tall man, wearing rags for clothes, with long black hair and long, pointed ears. He blew out the match he lit the candles with and smiled at Toby.

"Ah," he said, "I had a feeling I wasn't alone in here."

"Who...who are you?" Toby whispered.

The man shrugged and sat down across from Toby. "No one, really," he answered. "Just one of the forgotten."

"The forgotten?"

He nodded. "That's right." He gestured around them. "This is an oubliette, after all."

Toby remembered that word. Sarah said she fell in one before. "What's an oubliette?"

"It's where you put someone to forget about them." The man sighed. "I was thrown in here years ago. I got out after some time, but by then, I realized that everyone had already forgotten about me. If I was completely forgotten, then there was no reason to be spending my time up there with everyone. So, now I spend most of my time down here, trying to forget about everything. It's quite relaxing."

"I don't think this place is relaxing," Toby disagreed. "It's scary."

The man looked around, and shrugged again. "I never noticed, but that's probably because I mostly live down here. If you think it's scary, what are you doing here?"

"I don't know," Toby said. "I think I fell asleep. I lost my friend. I'm waiting for him."

"Waiting for your friend?" the man repeated. "How long do you intend to wait? Chances are, your friend has already forgotten you."

Toby's mouth opened in horror. "Hoggle wouldn't forget me. Friends never forget each other."

"Well, that's what I used to think, lad. But all my friends forgot me. Even my family forgot me."

"Sarah wouldn't forget me either," Toby said surely. "I'm her knight."

The man smiled. "Are you? How cute. Who's Sarah then? Your little girlfriend?"

Toby grimaced. "Eeeeewwww! No! She's my sister."

The man laughed. "Oh. My apologies. You're her knight, you say? She needs some rescuing then?"

He nodded. "Yeah. She's at Jareth's castle."

The man's eyes widened. He looked scared. "You're solving the Labyrinth, then?"

"Jareth said I have to get to his castle to rescue Sarah."

"Stop saying his name!"

"Who's name?" Toby asked in confusion. "Jareth?"

The man gave him an angry look. "Hey, I never hit a kid, but you're really asking for it."

Toby quickly closed his mouth at the threat.

"Look," the man said, "to say his name is to invite him. I've managed to avoid him since he threw me in here, so I really don't want him around me now. He likes to purposely forget, but he never really does. If he sees me, he'll remember me. When he sees me, he'll know that I'm not going crazy down here, and he'll do something worse."

Toby nodded, understanding. "How do I get to his castle?"

"You have to get out of here first."

"Sarah got out of here before," Toby said. "And you said that you got out. So how do I get out?"

The man was silent for a minute. "Kid...even if you get out of here, you won't save your sister. Do you know how many people end up stuck in an oubliette like this until their time is up? No one ever gets back the person they wished away. The best thing you can do is make a deal with the King, try to ensure that your sister will be okay. You get it?"

"Sarah told me to never make deals with him. And I have to get her back. She rescued me last time, so I can't give up."

The man sat back. "Your sister won the Labyrinth before?" he exclaimed. "That's outstanding!"

"Please help me," Toby begged.

He frowned and sighed. "Kid, even if I did get you out of here, your chances of winning aren't too great. You see, no one's supposed to win the Labyrinth. Rather, you're supposed to lose. The Labyrinth teaches wishers valuable lessons. Having the person you wished away actually disappear is a simple lesson; be careful what you wish for. But when you run the Labyrinth, it...changes you. Like the Labyrinth is always changing, so does that effect you. A person may learn not to be so stubborn, or selfish, or conceited, depending on who they are and what they're faced with in the Labyrinth. You might learn...to take responsibility of your actions. You made a mistake by wishing away your sister, and now you must deal with the consequences. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Toby admitted grudgingly. "I understand that, but... I want Sarah _back_. I promise I'll behave for the _rest of my life_—"

They were suddenly interrupted when the door on the ceiling of the oubliette opened, and there was a familiar screaming. And then Hoggle fell into the oubliette, landing with a puff of dirt on the ground, and the door slammed back shut. Hoggle growled and got up, wiping of his butt and muttering.

"Hoggle!" Toby cried with relief. "I found you! I knew you wouldn't leave me!"

Hoggle look up in surprise. "Ah, so this is where you've been. What are you doing here? And talking to _him_?"

Toby glanced at the man, who shrugged. "I was asking for help," he said.

"Oh, _he's _not going to help you!" Hoggle said. "And he's _blind_."

Toby gasped. "You're blind?"

The man laughed. "Blind as a scab rat, I'm afraid. See my eyes?"

Toby looked closer, and as the light flickered over them, he saw that the man's eyes were white. "Oh," he said thoughtfully.

"C'mon, Toby," Hoggle said. "We're getting out of here. Now...where's that door...?"

* * *

><p>"EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!" Toby cried, covering his mouth at his nose. "What is that smell? That's disgusting!"<p>

"I know," Hoggle said, pinching his own nose shut. "Didn't Sarah ever tell ya about the Bog of Eternal Stench?"

"I thought she made it up to make me laugh."

"No, that's the reason _Jareth_ created it. To make himself laugh."

"What is it for?"

Hoggle shook his head. "Jareth likes to threaten people with it. He's good at findin' pretty much any reason to toss ya into the Bog."

As they carefully traveled the dirt path through the Bog, Toby looked around and saw four goblins practicing synchronized swimming.

"It's so _gross_!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, so let's get outta here quick, before Jareth find a reason to show up."

"I mean," Toby went on, "it smells worse than my mom's cooking! By, like, a _hundred _times."

"I would gladly take your mom's cooking over this," Hoggle replied.

Toby laughed. "Yeah. Hey, Hoggle, are we almost there?"

Hoggle looked up at the sky briefly. "Almost. e just have to go through the Junk City, and then through the Goblin City."

Toby nodded. "Let's hurry then."

* * *

><p>The Junk City didn't smell good either, but it was much better than the Bog. It was piles and piles of garbage as far as Toby could see. Some of the stuff in the piles actually looked cool, stuff he wanted to touch, but he didn't because they were covered in spider webs—he <em>hated <em>spiders—and there as a lot of broken glass—he knows to never touch broken glass or he'll get cut.

Plus Hoggle was pulling him on pretty quickly, so he didn't stop.

Until they accidently ran into a goblin lady carrying a mountain of junk on her back, hunched over, and she nearly fell over when she was hit. She huffed and straightened her clothes, which were rags.

"Why don't you watch where you're going, little boy?" she snapped at Toby.

"Why don't _you_?" Hoggle rebuked. "You had your eyes open, didn't you?"

The Junk Lady grumbled something that sounded like a different language. "Well, I never!"

"Hoggle?" Toby interrupted, wanting to keep going on. The Junk Lady was kind of creepy.

"Ah, little boy..." She turned her attention to Toby, looking over him musingly. "Hmmm... You're quite young; you look like you have a nice, firm frame to you. I could use a strong back like yours."

"Uh," was the only thing Toby managed to respond with. He shifter closer to Hoggle for safety.

"What do ya say, boy?" The Junk Lady asked. "Why don't you stay with me? I'm much better company then this grumpy, old dwarf."

"Hmph," Hoggle sniffed.

"I just need help carrying my stuff," she continued. "It's not junk, you know? It's treasure. And you can have as much of it as you want."

Toby's curiosity piqued. "I can?"

"Yeeeeessss," the Junk Lady cried with excitement, nodding. "Why, of coouurse you can. Just take a look around. Don't you see anything you like?"

"Toby, we better keep going," Hoggle said quietly.

"In fact," the lady said, "I _have _something for you."

"You do?" Toby asked.

She nodded again. "Yes, I do. Here." She reached up and pulled something from her back, and offered it to Toby. It was a very familiar teddy bear.

"Hey!" Toby said indigently. "Lancelot. That's _mine_." He paused. "Well, actually, it was Sarah's first, but she gave it to me. And give him back!" He snatched the bear from the lady's hands, hugging it, and retreated back to Hoggle's side.

"If you accept my gift, that means you'll stay with me," she said.

"I'm not staying with you." Toby looked at Hoggle for backup, but Hoggle didn't seem to be paying attention to either of them. He was looking at something on the Junk Lady's back.

"That clock still ticks," he said, pointing at something. "Excuse me, is that the _correct _time?"

"You bet it is," the lady said. "It's my prize possession; so get your grubby hands off!"

Toby dropped the teddy bear and stomped his foot in frustration. "Hoggle! Can we go now?"

Hoggle didn't respond. Toby was going to grab his hand and drag him, but was stopped by his expression. He looked...sad. He shook his head and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Toby asked with worry.

Hoggle didn't speak for a long time. He sighed again. "Toby," he said, "I'm..._sorry_. But...time's up."

Toby was confused. He was going to ask what Hoggle was talking about.

Jareth's voice came from all around them, though they couldn't see him anywhere. "That's right, my fine fellow." He sounded happy. "You are completely out of time. Your thirteen hours are over. You've lost; please come again and try another time." He laughed evilly.

Toby's eyes watered as he looked at Hoggle. "I _lost_?" His voice cracked. "I lost Sarah?"

Hoggle looked down. Toby began to cry, hugging Hoggle tightly as he did. He wished he had Sarah to hold, but he never would again.

"_Oh_, now why all the tears, boy?" Jareth said. "There's no need for that; I have a consolation prize for you to win."

Toby sniffled and looked up at the sky. "Wha-what's that?"

Suddenly, a large bubble started to float down from the sky, towards the two of them. "Come and see me," Jareth said. "I'll be happy to show you."

The bubbled swallowed Toby up. He screamed and pounded on the sides of it, not wanting to be separated from Hoggle. The bubble popped in a shower of glitter, but Toby was gone.

* * *

><p>The road to Hell is littered<br>with nice guys with good intentions  
>But once you're there, you're there<br>It's much too late  
>I can cry and scream, "It's just not fair<br>To leave me here like you don't care  
>There must be some mistake up there in Heaven."<p>

-Alice Cooper, "It's much too late"

* * *

><p><strong>Well...<strong>

**How many of you thought Toby would lose? Or win?**

**I thought for a LONG time about whether I wanted Toby to win or lose. But...there's still 2 more chapters to come. If you think you know where this is going, you probably don't. ^^**

**THANK YOU FOR READING! PLEASE REVIEW!**

**p.s. I update faster when I get more reviews.**


	11. The One That Got Away

I've been having a lot of Jareth dreams lately. ...Don't know what they're supposed to mean. Ah well, I guess that's what I get for sleeping with him every night. ...Er, I mean, I have a Jareth BLANKET that I allow to caress me in my unconsciousness. =^.^=

ONWARD!

Toby floated down onto a stone balcony, some part of Jareth's castle. Only, the balcony was not attached to the castle. He landed softly on his feet.

Jareth was standing there, waiting for him. He was wearing all black; he looked very scary. He had a clear, crystal ball and was juggling it from hand to hand. He smiled at Toby, who didn't smile back. He remembered that Sarah defeated him once before, so he had to brave up and do the same.

"Welcome, Toby," Jareth said.

Toby stayed quiet, thinking hard. _What were those words?_

Jareth tilted his head. "You look exhausted." He grinned. "You should stay for the night; I'll personally fix a room for you."

_Oh yeah! _"You have no power over me!" Toby shouted.

He waited. His words resounded through the empty air. The castle didn't fall, Sarah didn't appear, and Jareth didn't turn into an owl. Nothing happened. Toby wondered if he didn't say it loud enough...

Jareth stopped the rolling crystal in his hand and gave Toby an angry look. "I see Sarah _has _taught you a thing or two." He sighed. "But, yes, you are correct. I have no power over you, but that only works the first time and with Sarah. Besides, you already lost, so we're no longer opposing each other. Do you understand that?"

Toby shrugged sullenly, and wiped the tears from his face while sniffling. Fresh tears threatened to spill over. "Where's Sarah?"

Jareth tsked. "Never mind that. She's none of your concern now."

"I want to see Sarah!" Toby demanded. "_Now!_"

Jareth narrowed his eyes. "You want Sarah back, don't you?"

"Yes," Toby answered quickly. "Are you going to give her back to me?"

"I could consider such a thing," Jareth said, rubbing his chin. "I believe I have an offer that would solve everyone's problems."

"I just want _Sarah_," Toby insisted.

Jareth took a few steps forward, causing Toby to take a few steps back. He held his crystal out in one hand. "Listen, Toby. I have no desire to separate you from Sarah. Rather, I want the two of you together. Your bond is very strong, and truthfully I admire that. I would hate to be the one to tear that apart."

Toby wasn't sure if he understood. "So, you _are _giving her back to me?"

He shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Toby. She already belongs to me because you lost, and I won her"—he grinned—"fair and square. _However_...I _can _give _you _to _her_."

"What do you mean?"

Jareth lightly tossed the crystal into the air and caught it, giving Toby a wink. "Just take this crystal, Toby. Take it, and I'll give you what you want most. I promise that you won't have to lose Sarah." He laughed. "I promise I can share."

Toby looked at the crystal. He folded his arms over his chest. "You can stuff it up your muffin and go stick it in the fire."

This gave Jareth a pause. "I beg your pardon?

Toby raised his eyebrows. "It's from an Alice Cooper song."

Jareth's eyebrows came together and he shook his head slightly.

"You don't know who Alice Cooper is?" Toby exclaimed. "But your both _really _old, I thought you were supposed to know who he is."

Jareth's arm fell to his side. He gave Toby a stern, annoyed look that he got from his father a lot. "I'm beginning to imagine what kind of influence your sister is on you."

Toby momentarily got off track, and quickly brought himself back at the mention of his sister. He wanted to speak with her. He didn't want to accept Jareth's offer unless Sarah said it was okay, because he wasn't sure about it.

"I want to see Sarah."

Jareth scowled. "No—"

Toby interrupted him furiously. "I wish Sarah was here right _now_!"

Toby thought Jareth was going to yell back at first, but he heaved a heavy sigh and straightened up. He waved a hand behind him, and Sarah slowly appeared. Her vision was shimmering. She was trapped inside a bubble.

"Sarah!" Toby shouted, excited, and began running towards her.

Jareth stepped into his way. "I think _not_."

Toby stumbled back with surprise. He didn't try approaching Sarah again, but he looked around Jareth to see her. She was on her knees, pressing one hand against the bubble. She mouthed his name. He couldn't hear anything she was saying.

"Toby." Jareth recalled his attention, flaunting the crystal in his face. "Look. Remember what I'm offering you. The only thing I can't do is let Sarah leave here. I will gladly allow you and her to be together. All you have to do is take this crystal."

Sarah was shaking her head wildly.

Toby hesitated. "I don't think I should."

"If you want to be with your sister, you should. If you don't take it, I will send you home and you will never see Sarah again."

His eyes widened. But Sarah was _still _shaking her head at him, shouting things he couldn't hear.

"What if I take it?" Toby asked.

Jareth raised an eyebrow. "Then you will have nothing but time to spend with Sarah. If you wish it so, you never have to be away from her. I can't make you a better offer."

"But you said Sarah has to stay here," Toby said.

Jareth nodded. "She does."

Toby held back his tears. "How can I see if she has to stay here?"

"Toby, did you not enjoy the Labyrinth?"

"It was scary."

"Hoggle was scary?" Jareth asked doubtfully. "The door knockers were scary? The fireys were scary?"

"Well...no," Toby admitted.

"Think about it," Jareth said. "There's nothing for you at your home. Everything you care about is right here, in the Labyrinth. Sarah...your friends..."

"But what about my parents?" Toby asked. "And school?"

"Choose, Toby," Jareth said, suddenly harsh, causing Toby to jump. "You must make a choice. It's Sarah, or your parents and school. You can only have one thing."

Toby stood there, silent and torn. He looked to Sarah for help, but she was silent also, watching them.

"Does Sarah want to stay here with you?" Toby asked softly.

Jareth seemed surprised at that question, but smiled. "Why, _yes_, Toby. Yes, she really does."

That had Sarah screaming again, banging on the inside of the bubble. The bubble rippled indestructibly.

"She...she _seemed _like..." Toby remembered when he was at the party. "I saw you two dancing. You were laughing, and she was smiling." He sighed, wringing his hands together nervously. "I never told Sarah this, but I went in her room a lot to look at all the pictures she draws in the stuff I'm not supposed to look at. She drew _a lot _of pictures of you."

Jareth's mouth opened. He glanced back at Sarah.

"I always thought that she liked you a little bit," he continued. "I tried to tell her that once, but she got really mad. Then I heard her crying in her room. I never told her that either. When you were dancing...it looked like _you _liked her too."

Jareth said nothing.

"_Do _you like Sarah?" Toby pressed.

"_Like _her?" He crossed his arms over her chest. "That sounds ridiculous."

"It's not ridiculous! Tell me. Do you like Sarah?"

He didn't reply.

"Do you _love _her?" Toby asked.

Jareth's eyes widened, then narrowed, and then he looked away. Toby realized the same way Sarah reacted to questions that she didn't want to answer. Toby clearly realized the truth, completely stunned to find out.

"You _do _love her." Then he was angry. "If you love her, why do you keep being so _mean_ to her?" he demanded. "If you really loved her, then you would be nice. I don't think you love her."

Jareth turned furious. "You don't think I love her? You don't think I'm _nice _to her? I've been nothing but generous to her! I've done _everything_ for her. Everything she asks of me, I comply with. I continually offer her _everything_. I am practically her _slave_. If that's not love, then I know nothing. The only thing _she _thinks of me is how cruel I can be, and I only act that way because I'm fuming that she always takes advantage of me and never acknowledges her own faults. _She _is the one who doesn't love me," he said, throwing his arm out behind him.

Toby looked to Sarah, who was quiet. She looked like she was crying. When she noticed Toby looking at her, she gave him a small smile and a little shrug.

"You're wrong," Toby told Jareth. "You're _wrong_. But she'll never love you if you don't let her go."

"I can't let her go," Jareth whispered. "Why should I lose what I've won?"

"What did you win?"

Jareth clenched his teeth and closed his eyes. With a growl, he hurled the crystal he held at the ground. Toby gasped. It smashed loudly, shards bouncing out in every direction. Jareth began to pace back and forth, his cloak whirling around him.

"_Jareth_," Toby said, trying to use that stern, warning tone his mother used when saying his name on occasions.

Jareth briefly looked at him, then stopped walking in front of Sarah. Sarah quickly wiped her eyes, and looked up at him. Jareth looked down at her for long time.

"Fine!" he said, spinning back to Toby. "You _win_," he growled. "_You win!_" With a flourish of his hand, he held another crystal, and like the last, he threw it angrily. This time, it was aimed at Sarah. The bubbled around her popped, glitter shimmering down around her. "I'm sending you _home_, Toby. And _Sarah_ is going _with you_. Is everyone _happy _now?"

Toby was staring at Sarah. He wanted to run at her, but he didn't dare move. Sarah was still on her knees, looking up at Jareth. Jareth glared at the ground.

"Can you _do _that?" Sarah asked quietly.

Jareth's shoulders fell. He sighed deeply. "_No. _I don't _know_," he groaned tiredly. He shook his head then. "I just can't find my way around the rules _that _much."

Sarah nodded and sat back, keeping her eyes down.

"Wait," Jareth said suddenly, raising his head. "I know. When Sarah ran the Labyrinth...I took three hours from her. I still _have_ those hours."

Sarah gasped and looked back up at him. Toby looked at him too.

Jareth waved his hand, and a thirteen-hour clock appeared in the air beside him. "There's no reason," he said, "that I can't give those hours to _you_, Toby." He looked pointedly t Sarah. "Once again, re-ordering time for _you_, precious thing."

All watched as the clock's minute hand moved back around the clock three times. The hour hand moved from the 13 back to the 10. Jareth turned to Toby and swept a hand towards Sarah.

"Toby, you have three hours to reached Sarah," his voice turned dark, "before you _both _become mine, forever."

Toby didn't waste a second to sprint over to Sarah, dropping to his knees and throwing his arms around her. She returned his hug tightly, the both of them crying. A moment later, they disappeared in a burst of white light.

* * *

><p>Or should I let you be the one that got away?<br>Knew it would happen but I didn't know it'd be today  
>All the voices in my head scream insane<br>The one that got away

"The One That Got Away", by you know damn well who.

* * *

><p><strong>NOOOOOO! You should NOT let either be the one that got away! What the fuck are you doing!<strong>

**One more chapter people. Just one. I can make or break this story. Pray for the ending you want.**

**The Alice line Toby recited was from none other than 'Why Trust You'. It was basically Toby's innocent way of telling Jareth to stick his crystal up his ass and go fuck himself LOL.**

**REVIEWS ARE APPRECIATED! (think i spelted that wrong, butz im too lazy to check)**


	12. Poison

Sarah sat at her desk, in darkness save for the dim desk lamp, looking through her sketchbook. She flipped ruined after ruined page, tracing over them longingly with her fingers. She didn't find herself angry at Toby that he colored over them and ruined them, only a little sad that her work was all for nothing. _Memories all for nothing. _But, she would rather have Toby than anything else, so ruined drawings made no difference.

She put down the pad and picked up the drawing Toby made for her, and smiled. She knew she'd never get tired of laughing at those abstract scribbles of colors portraying her defeat of the Goblin King, who himself was dead at the bottom o the page, x's over eyes and pink tongue lolled out of his mouth.

"It's better than any of my drawings," she had told Toby, and his face lit up.

"Do you really think it's that good?" he asked.

"I don't wanna hang it on the fridge," she had said, "because I'm putting it in my room. I want to always have it with me."

It was almost eleven o'clock when they finally returned from the Labyrinth. Funny, only three hours had gone by. Unless the Goblin King reordered time for them. Again.

Sarah's parents were home, and had thrown a complete fit when they saw that Toby wasn't asleep yet. "It's a school night, Sarah! How could you be so irresponsible?" So Sarah assured them he would go right to bed now, and she went to his room with him. He wanted a story. Sarah read him stuff from a Fae Legends book, spicing it up bit with her natural storytelling skills. She didn't think a story on her adventures in the Underground were very appropriate.

Now Toby was sleeping, and she was back in her room, alone.

Alone.

And when she's alone, she gets thinking.

Yes, she had been doing _serious thinking_.

And some crying.

Finally, she felt like she could open her mouth without something stupid coming out of it. She was completely confident in herself. With an assured sigh, and a deliberate nibble on her bottom lip, she sat back in her chair.

"Goblin King, Goblin King...wherever you may be—" She smiled slyly. "Get your glittery ass over here."

"I thought you'd never say the words."

She gasped and spun around on the chair, only to come face to face with Jareth as he put a hand on either armrest, preventing her from going anywhere. They both knew she wasn't going anywhere. He wouldn't have let her, and even then, she didn't want to.

What happened next was blur for her. She couldn't say who kissed who first, but she _could_ say that it was everything she ever dreamed about and more. And, yes, there _were _fireworks.

The second her lips touched his, something warm shot right down to her very core. Her fingers and toes itched, her body ached for closeness. The kiss deepened as she stood up, pressing herself firmly against him as she put one hand at the back of his neck, her other hand grabbing a fistful of his feather soft hair. His hands slid down to her hips, and inched under her shirt, resting on the small of her back to pull her even closer. That's when the kiss became hungry; Sarah opening her mouth to him. And, of course, he tasted like forbidden fruit.

She suddenly became aware of the cool leather on her skin, and pulled back slightly. Jareth lightened up, and finally released her mouth. They opened their eyes. Neither of them spoke as Sarah reached behind her and took Jareth's hands, and very deliberately removed his gloves, throwing them behind her without looking back. She held one hand, while she lifted the other to her face, and kissed the scars on his wrists. He stretched his fingers over her cheek, and she leaned her face into his palm, closing her eyes as a silent tear slipped from them.

They stood like that for a while, time dissipating in their minds.

Finally, Sarah opened her eyes and decided to speak.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice just above a whisper. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I gave you when I ran the Labyrinth. I didn't see it then, but the more I think about it, I know you're right. Everything you did, you did because I asked. Or expected it." She paused, then said, "That doesn't mean I'm still not pissed that you threw a snake at me, and set the Cleaners on me."

He smiled faintly.

"What you said at the end though," she continued. "I understood was you were asking me. I was fourteen. A child, sure, but that doesn't mean I was stupid. I don't know...I don't really know why I rejected you. Maybe it was because I just wanted to prove myself, be the heroine. Heroines aren't supposed to fall in love with the villains. But I...I couldn't help myself.

"What you said later, about loving me still... I think I _was _afraid. Afraid that I would enjoy it, because I kept trying to convince myself that that was wrong. Now I know, I really don't give a damn."

He smirked briefly. "I suppose I have some things to apologize for as well," he said. "The snake and the Cleaners; I'm suppose I could have made a point without the use of those. More recently... Those nightmares were out of hand, even I must admit." He sighed. "I'm very sorry, Sarah."

"I forgive you, Jareth," she said. "But...only if you'll forgive me for lying to you."

Jareth's dark eyebrows drew together. "What did you lie about?"

"Telling you that you have no power over me."

He grinned widely, and tipped his head back as he laughed. Sarah reveled in the sound; rich and completely devoid of bitterness or malice. He gently grabbed her face and kissed her once more.

"EEEEEWWWWWWWWW!"

Jareth froze and Sarah jumped in surprise, both of them breaking from the kiss to look at the blonde little boy in the room, a grimace on his face while his blue eyes were lit with wonder and amusement.

"Sarah kissed the Goblin King!" Toby announced.

Jareth and Sarah shared glances. Jareth wordlessly stepped forward and picked the boy up from under his arms and walked to the door with him. He dropped him in the hallway—

"Sarah and Jare-eth sittin' in a tree; K-I-S-S-I—"

—and shut the door in his face.

"—N-G!" Toby finished quickly, voice muffled. Jareth and Sarah waited until his shadow disappeared from beneath the door before he turned to her, and she started giggling.

"Dad and Karen are going to kill me because he's still not asleep," she said.

Jareth smiled proudly. "You needn't worry. They're both sound asleep, and shall remain so until morning, no matter how loud the rest of the house gets."

Sarah leaned back against her desk. "Oh? Well, Jareth, it certainly sounds like you had a plan when you came here. And just _what _is it?"

He started sauntering toward her, with an expression that meant no good was going to come to her. "You _do _know, Sarah," he began casually, "that time doesn't just disappear. I freed you and your brother by adding another three hours to his clock. He only took nine seconds to reach you. That still leaves 2 hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-one seconds that was originally your time. However, it was my time as well. That means that rightfully _you are mine_ for that time." He put his hands firmly on her hips. "Shall I start the clock?"

She gave him the most innocent look she could manage. "If you desire you, Your Majesty. Though I feel it's only fair to warn you, I have every intention of fighting you all the way."

"_Precious_," he purred, "I would want it no other way."

He slid his hand forward as he leaned down for another kiss—which she was waiting for, despite her promise of defiance. But he knocked over her sketch pad, and he stopped to look down at it curiously.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing really," she replied. "It was a project for art class, which I'm going to fail. They were pencil sketches; Toby thought he could help and color them in for me. That's why we got into an argument and he wished me away..."

He bent and picked it up, and started flipping through the pages. Sarah's gasped.

"Hey! The pictures... They're not ruined anymore. Jareth, did you do that?"

He didn't answer, but she knew there was no other explanation. Instead, he examined the book page by page. Pages littered with goblins; her friends, Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus; the Labyrinth's many inhabitants and bizarre scenery. Many of the pictures were of Sarah's dream, the goblin masquerade. Many pictures where of Jareth himself.

"They're all of the Labyrinth," Jareth murmured. "The ball. Everything is _exact_. And _me_." He looked up, and Sarah blushed guiltily. "You have a wonderful talent, Sarah. "

She shrugged. "Yeah, they're okay." She grinned slyly, and reached behind her to grab the picture Toby gave her. "But, look at this! I'm nowhere near as good as Toby, huh?"

Jareth narrowed his eyes as he inspected the picture Sarah held up. And he drew back slightly. "Ye gods, is that _me_?"

"The likeness is incredible, I know."

Jareth grimaced and put a hand to his chest, as if he couldn't feel the pain of the crayon sword stuck there, giving sympathy to his Crayola image. "That's...terrifying."

"Kid's got real potential, doesn't he?"

Jareth lifted his eyes to Sarah's, and smiled. "He really does, Sarah."

* * *

><p>Toby laid on his stomach on his bed, kicking his feet back and forth in the air, fervently coloring.<p>

Among him were a dozen goblins, a handful of fireys, Ludo, Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ambrosius, and the goblin masqueraders: Cat, Roul, and Aliya (crazy card chick). Party streamers and confetti were strewn all over the room, each guest wearing his own party hat. Toby dimly acknowledged that his mom was gonna kill him for the mess, but he was so happy he didn't care.

"Would thou again explain how you managed to solve the Labyrinth, young Sir Williams?" Sire Didymus inquired.

"I didn't really win," Toby said. "Jareth let me and Sarah go."

Hoggle shook his head in awe. "I still can't believe that rat let you two go. After all he's done..."

"He's not a rat," Toby said, somewhat fiercely. "He's a goblin."

Toby held his picture out in front of him, looking at it hard with a tilted head and his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. He smiled, satisfied. "Done!"

"Lemme see! Lemme see!" Everyone trampled each other to get a good view of the picture, and then there was an intense silence as they examined it.

They couldn't figure it out.

"'Tis a portrait of us!" Sir Didymus cried out, raising his saucer in the air triumphantly.

"Oh _yeah_," everyone drawled. An intelligible amount of mumbled ensued as everyone started pointing at things in the picture, trying to find themselves. For a seven year old, it honestly wasn't that bad. Toby beamed.

"Mine better," Tali said.

Toby looked at the goblin. "I bet you a pack of M&Ms that it's not."

Tali grinned and held up his paper. It caused some heads to tilt.

"What is it?" Toby asked.

"Is a chicken!" Tali said brightly.

Toby nodded. "Oh. I see it now. But mine is still better." He stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry at the goblin. "I'm bored now. What do you guys wanna do?"

They thought in silence for a minute.

"Anybody wanna see a card trick?" Aliya asked.

"NO!" they shouted back in unison.

"Now you cut that out, Aliya," Cat warned, "or I'll put your leash and muzzle back on."

Aliya sullenly sank back into her chair.

"Magic dance?" someone suggested timidly.

"Nah, man," said a firey, "_Chilly Down._"

"I'm kinda tried," Toby admitted. "I don't wanna dance."

"Anyone care for a game of Scrabble?" asked Sir Didymus, and Ambrosius made a whine of protest.

A few people shook their heads.

"What about a song?" Skip said.

The idea vaguely appealed to Toby. "What do you wanna sing?"

The goblins exchanged glances, and broke into huge, wicked grins.

_"When despair cuts like ice, happiness surely—_"

"_Shut _UP!" came the commanding voice of the Goblin King from the next room, and the goblins silenced on a dime. "If anyone dares to even mutter a single verse from that song, or hum a single note, I will have them drinking Bog water for the rest of their pitiful lives!"

This was followed by Sarah's laughter. "Oh, come on, Goblin King. We all know that's an empty threat."

"My dear, you are very badly mistaken. I do not make empty threats. Ask any goblin. The only thing that keeps the majority of them around is my tolerance."

"Oh yeah. 'Beware. I have been a very patient man, but I _am _capable of throwing hissy fits when I don't get my way.' Every time I've heard you threaten someone with the Bog, nothing has ever happened."

"Remember when you kissed Hoggle?"

There was a long pause.

"Besides that, Sarah, I don't need to threaten you with the Bog. I have a riding crop. And you would do well to remember."

"Did I ever tell you how incredibly sexy that little accessory makes you?"

"Do go on..."

Hoggle shut Toby's bedroom door and laughed nervously as he turned to the boy, whose eyes were nearly budging out of his skull.

"Maybe it's time for ya to go to bed, Toby," Hoggle suggested. "Just so ya don't happen to catch anymore of the adult conversation next door."

"I don't wanna sleep," Toby protested, but truthfully, he was extremely tired.

"I'm thinkin' it's time for us to get back to the Labyrinth," Hoggle pressed. When he looked around sternly, a few people agreed.

"Will you guys come back?" Toby asked, fearful they wouldn't return. "Tomorrow?"

"Young sir," Didymus said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "we shall always be around for you. Should you ever need us..."

"Toby _friend_," Ludo said.

"Yes," Hoggle said. "Should you ever need us, for any reason at all..."

Toby looked around him, at all the smiling faces of his new friends. He had never felt more loved before. He smiled back. "I'll call."

* * *

><p>I hear you callin' and it's needles and pins (and pins)<br>I wanna hurt you just to hear you screaming my name  
>Don't wanna touch you, but you're under my skin (deep in)<br>I wanna kiss you, but your lips are venomous poison

-"Poison"

**OR**

It's only, only, only my heart talkin'  
>Yeah, it's only, only, only my heart talkin'<br>Saying things I never thought I'd say  
>Can't you hear me knocking<br>Tried to fool you but it wouldn't play  
>'Cause my heart it's talkin', it's talkin'<p>

-"Only My Heart Talkin'"

*showy bow* Ladies and Gentlemen... _Alice Cooper_.

* * *

><p><strong>Not quite The End.<strong>

**Thank you thank you thank you thank you so so so so much! Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed, from the people who've been with me since the beginning to the people who will be reading this in future. I can't thank you enough.**

**I really hope you guys all truly enjoyed this.**

**Thank you, Alice Cooper, for being my inspiration. **

**And, folks, I am FAR FROM DONE.**

**This may be over, but I'm actually planning a couple 1-shot spin-offs from this. Stand by. Stand very close by.**

**AAAAANNNNDDD now that I'm done with this, I get to start my story based off the creation of Pika-la-Cynique  "LABYRINTH : "Uh oh..."" It will be much fun.**

**AAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNDDDDDDD if you were slightly disappointed in the ending of this because you just really love evil evil Jareth, i incourage you to check out my story "Silence of the Darkness". It has a sequal coming up.  
>If humor's your thing: "The Messenger Owl" "As The World Falls Down" and the upcoming Pika story. <strong>

**I have Labyrinth youtube videos too. The links are on my profile. **

**Review?**


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